Decision on new West Bromwich mosque expected after delays over ‘parking nightmare’
A decision on building a new mosque in West Bromwich is expected to be made next week following a delay over parking fears.
The new mosque would be built in Dartmouth Street, West Bromwich, under plans revealed by the Bangladeshi Muslim Welfare Association earlier this year.
Sandwell Council’s planning committee meets again on September 4 having pushed back a decision in July to allow for talks over the area’s existing parking problems and the small number of spaces included in the application.
The council’s planning officers have recommended again the application should be approved.
Only 16 parking spaces have been included for more than 450 worshippers with surrounding roads such as narrow Dartmouth Street, Brook Street and Duke Street mostly covered in double yellow lines and with very few on-street spaces.
The planning meeting comes after frustrated neighbours complained to councillors that the area’s 'parking nightmare' left them feeling trapped in their own homes. Ten objections and a petition with 38 signatures against the new mosque were lodged with Sandwell Council.
At the meeting in July, a number of residents in Brook Street said they supported the new mosque but were very concerned by so few parking spaces. One resident, who is a doctor, said she had missed appointments because of cars blocking her home and another objector, who lived with her 70-year-old husband with mobility issues in Brook Street, said the number of cars illegally parking was “absolutely horrendous and a nightmare".
The council’s highways department said the mosque was in a 'sustainable' location near public car parks and a metro stop and would have 'no significant detriment' to the area.
The authority added the new mosque would ‘not improve’ the serious parking situation but would also ‘not make it significantly worse'.
West Bromwich councillor Liam Preece said the objectors 'fundamentally disagreed' that the current parking situation in Dartmouth Street and the surrounding area was safe or acceptable – and many were scared following angry run-ins leaving them feeling “unsafe in their own homes".
The new mosque, which would be larger than the one proposed in 2011, includes a bigger main hall with space for 370 worshippers, a hall with space for more than 230 people, classrooms, meeting rooms, a separate female prayer space for up to 135 people and a mortuary.
Reports included with the application showed that around 425 people were now visiting the Brook Street mosque – close to the proposed maximum capacity for the new mosque – and just over a third of worshippers arrived by car or car share.
The traffic survey also showed 113 cars parked during peak Friday prayers. The mosque had argued that cars could park on both sides of Brook Street – despite most of the road having parking restrictions – and Sandwell Council said the road was not wide enough for two-way traffic with cars parked on either side.
The council said traffic wardens had visited Dartmouth Street, Brook Street and Duke Street nearly 600 times already this year but figures were not provided for the number of fines or tickets.
The existing Jami Masjid and Islamic Centre on the corner of Dartmouth Street and Brook Street would close to make way for the new mosque. Fenced-off land in Duke Street between the existing and proposed mosques would be cleaned up and turned into a nine-space car park.
Sandwell Council originally approved plans to build a new mosque on the land, which was previously home to the Hop and Barleycorn pub, in 2011. The project was eventually mothballed with the BMWA blaming the economic downturn for bringing the work to a halt.
