'Mosque' and madrasa to take over former Preston sunbed shop

The Ribbleton Avenue premises - formerly occupied by the Bronze Sun Salon - will be converted into a space for worship on the ground floor and a children’s Madrasa in the flat above.

Preston City Council’s planning committee approved the proposal at a meeting during which members heard concerns from Ribbleton ward councillor Jonathan Saksena.

He questioned the characterisation of the development presented within the application as one of “learning and non-residential institutions, including religious and educational activities”.

Cllr Saksena told the committee: “If you talk to the people that are in favour of it, they don't call it that at all - they call it a mosque.

“What I can't understand is why this wasn't called a mosque in the first place, unless [that] for some arcane reason, it was thought by the applicant that if they asked for a mosque they were [unlikely] to get it.”

The veteran councillor added that details of the blueprint had already appeared online, suggesting that it was going to attract visitors who could add to the “incredibly bad” parking situation on surrounding streets.

Neither the applicant - Faizane Arafat Educational Centre - nor their agent addressed the committee, but discussions have been ongoing with city council planning officers and Lancashire County Council highways officials since April about the potential parking impact of the proposal.

Committee members were told that the maximum number of people to be permitted to use the prayer room at any given time had since been halved from 50 to 25, while the proposed operating hours had been trimmed from 5am-11pm to 7am to 11pm. The after-school Madrasa will be able to accommodate four classes of 12 students each.

County Hall offered no objection to the revised plans on highway safety grounds. The applicant suggested that, based on a similar facility in Huddersfield, the transport choices for those attending prayer sessions would break down into 19 percent coming by car, with a further 58 percent being passengers in those vehicles and the remainder arriving on foot.

Eight off-street parking spaces will be available at the site – two at the front and six to the rear - meaning that in a “worst case scenario”, four vehicles would have to find space on the roadside, which it was felt could be accommodated.

Committee member Carol Henshaw said that while she was in no way opposed to the plans, it was vital that conditions - which include those giving user numbers and a ban on loudspeaker equipment - were enforced in order “to be protective of the neighbours”.

The application was unanimously approved.

Ninety-nine letters of support for the proposal were received by the city council, while there were 10 letters of objection – five of which came from the same address.

Supporters claimed that the facilities would satisfy local demand for a place of worship, while objectors argued that the plans would have an unacceptable impact on highway safety.