UPDATED 10.10.20
Email To Essex Police 28/09/20.
We have contacted Essex Police to ask for clarification on some issues relating to the Hamptons.
cc Cllrs Young, J Sosin, Chiswell
Dear Sir/Madam
Re: Hamptons Sports & Leisure Centre, Tydemans, Great Baddow
With reference to the above, I am writing to ask for clarification on two points,
1) Following our own observations of Hamptons being used against its planning conditions every Friday for the last ten weeks for the purposes of worship, please could you clarify why your officers (who have recently been attending) do not appear to be enforcing the relevant Covid Guidelines with respect to users of the building? You will no doubt be aware that the owners and operators of Hamptons (the Chelmsford Muslim Society) have now been informed by Chelmsford City Council that they require planning permission to use the building as a Place Of Worship. We are not asking your officers to enforce the breach of planning control.
However, the guidance from the Government quite clearly states “This guidance is of a general nature and should be treated as a guide. In the event of any conflict between any applicable legislation (including the health and safety legislation) and this guidance, the applicable legislation shall prevail”
We feel that the key wording here is “applicable legislation shall prevail”. This quite clearly means that regardless of any risk assessments or compliance by the owners, the owners should not receive the benefit of the exemptions granted by the guidance, since they do not hold planning permission for a Place Of Worship and have not registered the premises for such with the General Registrar at the Home Office. The building actually does not actually have consent to operate as a community centre either, it is described as a Sports & Leisure Centre on all relevant documents, including its assessment for business rates and as such current Covid guidance in this respect should prevail.
Our recent observations over numerous weeks have noted that;
a) that there have been in excess of 50 people attending prayers within the main hall every Friday.
b) We have witnessed users gathering after prayers, many not wearing face masks, shaking hands and generally contravening recommended guidelines for social distancing.
c) The government guidelines recommend using separate entrance and exit (where possible) to create a one way system. The main hall has three points of access and egress including two external exits on opposite sides, yet they only use one single door (on the concealed side) for exit and entrance.
2) Please could you clarify the reasons why it appears necessary to have a continued police presence at the Hamptons for Friday prayers? We counted 3 units on 25/09/20. We are aware of an alleged altercation a few weeks back, but we understand that no arrests were made (despite what Hamptons have posted on social media) and we therefore request an explanation as to the reasons for your attendance with no apparent incident called in (as far as we are aware). Many local residents feel this is a waste of the officers valuable time, and a waste of the taxpayers money. With police budgets currently under review, would your officers not be better used elsewhere to tackle real crime?
I look forward to your response on this matter
Regards
The Save the Hamptons Team.
RESPONSE RECEIVED FROM ESSEX POLICE 09.10.20
We do intend to challenge some of the points in this response.