Mosque told it must close

AN Islamic community must find a new place of worship after a controversial mosque was shown the red card.

Sunderland's Pakistani community set up the mosque at St Mark's Road, Millfield, without planning permission and have spent almost four years fighting to keep it open.But neighbours raised concerns about noise at prayer times and claimed the street was not suitable for the extra traffic generated by worshippers.

Planners from Sunderland Council agreed and the mosque, which also includes a social and education centre, was originally turned down for retrospective planning permission in January 2006. The worshippers took their case to the national planning inspector, but the appeal was dismissed.The council began enforcement action against the unauthorised use of the building, a former Asian food store.Users of the mosque appealed against the enforcement action, but lost in 2008 and the community was told it must move out by March this year.

However, a fresh planning application was submitted in a bid to overcome the problems, which left protesters furious.Mosque leaders said they had taken over a property in Chester Road as an extension to the centre and its rear yard provided three parking places to help ease traffic problems.But planners were still not happy with the parking situation, and recommended councillors reject the application once more.

Speaking at a planning committee meeting, objector Marjorie Matthews appealed to councillors to rubber-stamp the recommendation."This has been dragging on since 2006 – how much longer is it going to go on? "It has been turned down three times and its taxpayers that are having to pay for all these appeals."Mrs Matthews said residents were disturbed by noise from a speaker system set up in the mosque.

But a spokesman from the mosque said the small speaker system was no louder than a television, and only used so those using the rooms in the Chester Road building could take part in services.He added: "The car parking issue keeps coming up time and time again but we feel it is not an issue as the surrounding streets are mostly empty anyway."Councillor Graeme Miller asked representatives from the mosque why they could not use the large, established place of worship on Chester Road.

They said that like Christianity and Judiasm, Islam had a large number of different denominations and those using the mosque on Chester Road had different beliefs and customs.But councillors again ruled the St Mark's Road site was not suitable for a place of worship of any kind, and unanimously refused planning permission.

The council said it was now in a position to take enforcement action if the mosque did not cease operating.