Council refuses plan for mosque conversion

Plans to convert part of a madrassa on a Bradford residential street into a mosque have been refused by a planning committee.

Anwaar-Ul-Islam on Woodhall Avenue in Thornbury has been operating as a madrassa - a place of learning - since 2012.

Although the applicants said the mosque would only be used by 50 people at most, a supporting petition signed by almost 200 people suggested the actual number of worshippers could be much higher, councillors said.

Bradford Council refused the application after planning officers raised concerns over a lack of on-site parking and said potential "noise and disturbance" could affect local residents.

The council originally approved a proposal to convert the end-terrace building into a religious education centre in 2012 , but one of the conditions was that the building could only be used for education and not as a place of worship.

Applicant Mohammed Kashif Ali applied last year for permission to convert the ground floor of the building into a mosque with space for 50 worshippers, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

On behalf of the applicants, Ghazanfer Khaliq told the panel he thought 50 worshippers would be the highest number the building could accommodate, and said although on-street parking would be increased at times it would not be a major issue, with many attendees walking from nearby homes.

The council's legal officer, Bob Power, said it would be very difficult to add a condition to the application to limit the amount of worshippers as monitoring numbers at all times would be impossible.

Sinead Engel, Labour councillor for Clayton and Fairweather Green, said: "I don't feel comfortable undermining the condition on the planning application that was granted in 2012.

"There was a petition of 195 people who want this, but we've been told only 30 to 50 people will be able to make use of it.

"It is the wrong site - they need a bigger place."

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