04/01/21
Another Unhelpful Response.
We received another disappointing response from Town Planning (unsigned again) on 18/12/20. We submitted a specific set of question to them on 27/11/20 (read them here), and we are yet to receive a full and honest answer.
Here’s the latest reworking of the briefing statement written by the councils marketing team :
“We thank you for your letter but are sorry to see that you are not satisfied by the earlier response.
The views given by the Council on the need for planning permission are based on the information available at the time and following detailed assessment and consideration of the totality of the use of the premises by Planning and Legal Services.
It is the opinion of officers that the lawful use of the Hamptons is sui generis mixed use, being that of a community use for sports/recreation/leisure and social activities. As previously stated, officers have concluded that the lawful use of Hamptons can accommodate a certain degree of public worship/religious instruction use. Whether planning permission is required is a matter of fact and degree.
CMS have been advised to contact the Planning Service to advise of any new uses whether in connection with worship or otherwise. If any substantive change to the use of the building is reported to the Council by local residents or others, this will be thoroughly investigated.
If there is an increase in worship/religious instruction use, then a view will be taken whether the significance of such uses in the context of the overall use of the premises is such that a formal grant of planning permission would be required.
Regards
Town Planning Services”
our thoughts
This is of course the same response we’ve seen copied and pasted by the CEO, Town Planning, Planning Enforcement and various ward and parish councillors.
It’s so vague that it will just allow the Chelmsford Muslim Society to continue to bend the rules, and we believe do pretty much what they like at Hamptons. Does anyone truly believe that CMS will notify the council of any “new uses” or “substantive changes” ? They didn’t in July 2020 when they starting using the centre for Eid celebrations and Friday prayers, and didn’t give any warning to residents as they promised. Tough luck for the Friday Tea Dancers.
What will be their punishment if they do fail to notify the council ? We believe the council has no intention of enforcing, so the CMS will escape sanction again.
What consitutes a substantive change ? Without the parameters we’ve asked the council to define, how would anyone know ? Why won’t the council quantify what they mean by “ a certain degree of public worship/religious instruction use”
And why is it the local residents job to police the use ?
If a substantive change is reported by residents, we believe the council will take the full 12 weeks to investigate, and then continue to do nothing but invite CMS to apply for a full change of use planning permission (covering their backs and doing nothing to address the real issues).
We have again emailed Town Planning to ask for specific and detailed responses to our questions. We find their copied and pasted responses to be quite childish and unprofessional. They quite clearly believe that we will give up if they continue to frustrate us, and that will never happen.