At a strategic planning committee meeting on December 11, the developer behind the proposed Havering Mosque was given the floor for 20 minutes to discuss changes made to the pre-application plans.
It follows a previous meeting in November where councillors raised concerns surrounding pedestrian safety and “safe crossing opportunities”, drop-off management and parking capacity, noise levels and loudspeakers.
The developer shared data it had gathered from the existing Havering Islamic Cultural Centre (HICC) at 91 Waterloo Road, which has been bought in a compulsory purchase order in the name of the Bridge Close regeneration.
At present, the five prayer sessions at the HICC attract between 100 to 250 worshippers each, the meeting heard.
There are around 100 children in attendance in the evenings on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for educational classes.
It is Friday at the place of worship however that sees the greatest worshipper numbers across two prayer sessions, with around 800 attendees to each session at 12.30pm and 1.25pm.
Addressing concerns about high numbers of worshippers overlapping when leaving and entering the proposed venue, the developer explained several points.
They said: “The gap between the two Friday prayers will be increased by a further five minutes. The application site also includes internal spaces and external landscape spaces that won’t accommodate prayer but will enable worshippers to have more space and it will help with the dispersal from the site.
“The existing mosque doesn’t have those spaces to help with the dispersal.
“People do leave the building more gradually when there’s those external spaces that they can dwell in for a short period.”
The replacement mosque, which will be called Havering Mosque, is proposed to accommodate up to 1,200 worshippers at a time.
At present, 90 per cent of worshippers who attend the existing place of worship live in an RM postcode; more than half of these live in the RM7 and RM1 postcodes.
The majority of worshipper travel is by foot, the meeting heard, with 95pc of the worship base living within 30 minutes of the Waterloo Road venue.
The developer said: “The application would provide a financial contribution towards a new signalised pedestrian crossing over Old Church Road.
“This extra crossing would provide additional capacity and options for those needing to cross the ring road.
“This means the combined capacity of the two surface level crossings over Old Church Road would increase to around 54 pedestrians per minute. This means that pedestrians would be able to cross at a faster rate than they would leave the mosque itself.”
If approved, the new traffic signal crossing could see up to 344 worshippers per prayer session crossing Old Church Road using the two surface level crossings, assuming each session is attended to capacity.
Using Transport for London’s (TfL) Pedestrian Comfort Guidance system, it is predicted that just one location near to the proposed site would be impacted, with walking speeds reduced as a result of footfall traffic.
However, the council was assured that this would be experienced for “a very brief period only”, and “would not cause material delays or unacceptably poor levels of pedestrian comfort”.
At the last meeting, concerns were raised not only about the volume of pedestrian traffic, but also the impact on the surrounding ring road by South Street from extra vehicles linked to the mosque.
Thirty-eight per cent of current worshippers travel by car, but the developer advised that in the majority of cases this is a car share scheme.
The developer said: “The proposal would be aiming to increase that percentage of sustainable travel through the travel plan.
“The proposal will have a reduced level of vehicle traffic in and out of the existing vehicle access point compared with its historic use.”
Blue badge parking will be accommodated with eight spaces at the site in South Street, with traffic marshals proposed to be present during peak times to accompany blue badge vehicles to the correct bays.
Pick-up and drop-off activity will also be “limited” to a maximum of eight cars for pick-up and drop-off at a time.
The developer plans to see this traffic diverted to use the Old Church Rise car park, and the majority of worshippers driving to the site are expected to continue to use town centre parking at The Brewery and elsewhere.
Cllr David Taylor praised the detail of the pre-application plans, describing the vision for the mosque as “remarkable architectural designs”.
He stated: “I don’t think there’ll be many developments in Havering that come under as much scrutiny as this one, but I’m not sure I’ve ever seen so much detailed information provided on movements of pedestrians and vehicles.
“There’s a lot of work that has gone into this to show the impact it will or won’t have on the community and I think, certainly with my ward next door, I’m reassured by the info that we have been provided that actually this isn’t going to be of detriment to the surrounding area.”
Cllr Taylor addressed a repeated concern to do with the history tied to part of the proposed site, at 222 South Street.
The art-deco style building dates back to 1933 when it was originally built as the Page Calnan builder’s merchants.
“There’s some discussion that comes back and forth about the heritage of the building and I’m actually of the opinion that the designs before us actually preserve and enhance that particular site.
“I think at the moment it’s got a steak restaurant in it, was left abandoned for quite a bit and there’s just a large dull grey car park out the back, backing onto the river. It’s nothing remarkable.
“But what we’ve got is the opportunity to improve a landmark and very beautiful place of worship that I think does the town some justice.”
Cllr Taylor went on to say how the plans “tastefully” retain and enhance the building, adding: “I think this is exactly the sort of well designed community focused development that belongs in a major town centre.
“It does respect the heritage, it improves the public realm, it meets local needs, and is being shaped through an awful lot of community engagement.
“I urge members not just to focus on the concerns, which are valid and manageable, but to recognise the substantial benefits that this scheme brings.”
Residual concerns remained for councillors Tim Ryan and Ray Best, though Cllr Ryan described the travel plans as “very encouraging”.
Concerns put to the developer for future discussion included the safety of residents when walking through “tunnels and over certain bridges” to get to the site, and the number of people in the area leaving and entering the site.
Cllr Ryan said: “I’m absolutely 100pc behind what you’ve said this evening, but I still think we need further more discussions regarding the safety of all the residents going to and from the proposed Islamic centre.”
Cllr Best “concurred” with his fellow Conservative member, but added: “I’m not 100pc sure actually, the proof of the pudding is in the eating obviously but I’m still concerned about the number of people exiting and arriving at the premises during this period of the two prayers on a Friday.
“It does concern me, the number of people in that small area really. We’ve got to wait and see whether we can accommodate this.”
