A Watford church is set to become a mosque after plans were approved.
The borough council's development management committee met last night (February 3) to grant permission for for the St Thomas' United Reformed Church site to be turned into a Muslim place of worship.
The Langley Road church shut in 2015 and the building has since become “not fit for purpose” due to “serious structural defects”.
At last night's meeting, councillors voted in favour of the proposal, feeling that the community benefits outweigh the potential issues to do with parking.
Project lead for the proposed Masjid Al-Ummah mosque Numan Majeed spoke for the application and emphasised his local credentials, arguing that the proposal "seeks to restore the tradition of a faith-led building serving the wider community".
As well as the mosque, the proposal includes an extension and extensive refurbishment of the building, with a nursery, café, and community spaces to be provided alongside the religious use.
An officers' report published ahead of the meeting read: “The proposal will provide significant benefits in respect of the reuse of the existing building and occupation as a place of worship with community facilities and no adverse harm is identified that would warrant refusal of the application.
“The development accords with the development plan overall.”
During a public consultation, 84 supporting comments and 37 objections were received.
The objections came on a number of grounds including parking issues, noise and disagreements with turning a Christian place of worship into a Muslim one.
Parking fears were addressed by the committee but not seen as sufficient reason to refuse, while disagreements on religious grounds are not considered to be relevant to planning matters.
The applicant has said that a transport assessment predicts trip generation is “well within the capacity of the surrounding network” because peak activity is deliberately staggered to prevent “any concentrated surge”.
With planning permission having been granted, the mosque is scheduled to open this summer.
- Mosque plan for abandoned church moves forward as application goes in
- Mosque plan team issue 'comprehensive' response to all objections
St Thomas is one of two former Watford churches which are being eyed for conversion into mosques.
The plan for the other, Leavesden Road Baptist Church, was refused a week ago after officers found it would “cause substantial harm to the significance of the listed building”.
The applicant has subsequently indicated to the Watford Observer that a revised application is likely to be submitted.
