Council investigates concerns over mosque demolition
DEMOLITION work near Rotherham town centre is under council investigation as a result of concerns raised locally.
The demolition work has started on a mosque in Broom Lane, raising questions about the future of the site.
Rotherham Council’s Service Director for Regeneration, Planning and Transport, Simon Moss, said: “The council is aware of concerns regarding the demolition of the mosque on Broom Lane.
“The planning permission to extend the existing building, which was granted, did not include the full demolition of the current building.
“Our Planning Enforcement team is investigating and will be visiting the site to determine whether the works being undertaken still fall under the previously agreed planning permission.”
The site houses the Madrasah Raza-E Mustafa and Cultural Centre, and planning permission to extend the building, with a second storey, were passed in 2018.
A condition of that application was that work should start within three years, with an attendee of the mosque, who wouldn’t give his name, stating work started within that timeframe. He insisted Rotherham Council were happy with the situation.
The decision to allow that was made by the council’s planning board and a report they considered said the eave hight would be “broadly similar to the scale of neighbouring properties”.
The design of those proposals were not regarded as being “overly bulky” or intrusive, according to planners, who recommended that councillors approve the scheme.
It went before the planning board due to objections being received.
A more recent application, dating back to 2020, was refused.
That was rejected on the grounds that the height of the proposed new building would be “over dominant and overbearing and lead to an unacceptable tunnelling effect which would be harmful to the amenities of the occupiers of the adjacent property.”
Those plans would have seen the height of the changed building raised to 8.2 metres, against its neighbour’s 4.9 metres height, when the two stood only 2.5 metres apart.
Planners who rejected that application also stated “the proposed development would be out of scale and proportion to the neighbouring properties and appear as a dominant and discordant feature in the street scene”.
An appeal was made, but was dismissed by an inspector.