Preston ice cream parlour could become new Muslim prayer and education centre

An Islamic group has earmarked the semi-detached shop on Ribbleton Avenue, which has flats upstairs, as its base in the city and wants to open from 5am until midnight, seven days a week.

The worldwide Dawat-E-Islami organisation has submitted an application for a change of use at the property which adjoins a pharmacy, also with flats above.

"The proposal is to convert the whole of the building into a religious education centre with prayer facilities," says the group in a statement to the planning department.

"The main activities of the centre are children's after-school classes with religious activities. The proposal aims to provide a high-quality teaching environment that respects the character of the existing building."

If approved the Faizan Arafat Educational Centre, in the former Mr Scoopz ice cream shop, will employ two full-time staff and one part-time.

A noise assessment survey carried out to support the application says the centre would not have a detrimental impact on neighbouring properties.

A report from an acoustics consultant says there would be "prayers in the ground floor space across daylight hours, with earlier and later prayer times in the summer."

It said the earliest prayer time would be 6am and the latest midnight. Typically there would be 10 to 12 people for regular prayers. On Friday lunchtime that would be as many as 40 to 50.

Teaching would be on both the first floor and ground floor levels, with a maximum of 12 people per class. However there could be four classes running at the same time. Classes from Monday to Friday would be from 4:30pm to 7:30pm.

The application comes almost two years after a Muslim prayer facility in a semi-detached house in Carlton Drive, Frenchwood lost an appeal against council restrictions on its opening times and the numbers of worshippers allowed in at any one time.

The centre wanted to open from 5:30am to 11:30pm and to host up to 20 people for prayers. The council, which only allowed 7am to 10pm and up to eight people at a time, said extending those could cause a nuisance for residents nearby due to noise and parking.