Find, save and share Public Notices that affect you in the area.
Search the Public Notice Portal What is the Public Notice Portal?What is the Public Notice Portal?
The Public Notice Portal carries statutory public notices published in local newspapers and is the fastest and most effective way of finding out what is happening in YOUR neighbourhood.
Search the Public Notice PortalA rejected scheme to turn a Watford church into a mosque will be "scaled back" and resubmitted, its applicant has said.
This week has seen Watford Borough Council knock back a proposal to convert Leavesden Road Baptist Church into a Muslim place of worship.
An officers' report said: "The proposals would cause substantial harm to the significance of the listed building, as they would destroy, remove, subdivide, or obscure almost the entirety of its carefully designed and well-preserved interior.
"In addition, proposed exterior alterations are excessive and inappropriate. The substantial harm has not been demonstrated as being necessary to achieve substantial public benefits."
Following the ruling, applicant Shabaz Khaliq told the Watford Observer that his team will "will look to scale it back, revisit the design at a later stage, and work with the planners to achieve the best possible outcome".
While not operated as a church in more than four years, Mr Khaliq has been using the building since January 2024 for youth clubs, elderly circles, a library supporting literacy among children with English as an additional language, health sessions, and workshops. This use is set to continue despite the council's decision.
- Mosque plan for church REFUSED over risk to listed building
- 'Fight not over' as refused 600-home plan appeal expected
He stressed that any work will only be carried out once planning permission is approved and for now the building will remain unchanged.
"Like every householder, we went through the normal planning application process for an extension or conversion, which can result in approval or refusal," Khaliq added. "Many applications are refused today and there is understandably greater scrutiny where listed buildings are concerned.
"The existing use of the building is not being challenged and remains acceptable as it is.
"There are no issues with the building continuing to be used in its current form, and that is how it will remain for now, we have Ramadan coming up and it is a great time to invite the local community so we can break our fast together."
Next Tuesday (February 3) will see the council's development management committee vote on a separate but similar plan for a church elsewhere in Watford to become a mosque.
It would see the former St Thomas' United Reform Church in Langley Road become a mosque called Masjid Al-Ummah in the summer, with the plans also including it being used as a community space and nursery.
