Plans to expand Jamee Masjid in Bletchley have been approved, allowing the mosque to accommodate almost 100 additional worshippers despite concerns over parking in the area.
Plans to expand Jamee Masjid in Duncombe Street, Bletchley, have been approved by Milton Keynes City Council despite concerns about parking.
The extension will increase the mosque’s prayer-hall capacity from 187 to 281 worshippers.
The scheme will incorporate the neighbouring property at 46 Duncombe Street into the existing mosque at numbers 48 to 52, while rear extensions and an outbuilding will be demolished to make way for new single and first-floor extensions.
The development will also provide an enlarged prayer hall, a kitchen, toilets, an external emergency staircase and a separate rear outbuilding to be used as a mortuary.
Parking was the main issue raised during the council’s consideration of the plans.
The mosque currently has no allocated parking of its own. Council standards indicate the enlarged building would require 38 spaces, compared with 29 for the existing mosque.
Councillor Adrian Burton told the meeting that the area can become a “nightmare on a Friday afternoon” and said some worshippers do not use the former Sainsbury’s car park because it requires payment.
He asked whether the mosque could help subsidise parking to ease pressure on surrounding streets.
Other councillors said the existing parking shortfall could not be blamed entirely on the new application, as the extension itself would increase the council’s parking requirement by nine spaces.
Councillor George Humphrey Thomas said he was “definitely nervous” about parking but noted that the mosque already had a significant shortfall before the proposed expansion.
One resident also formally objected to the application, telling the council that traffic and parking problems in the area had become steadily worse over several decades.
Despite those concerns, councillors approved the extension.
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