Just Tell the Truth !
Can we start by saying a huge thank you to those of you that contacted their ward councillors regarding the Hamptons. Many of their responses have been forwarded to us, and in our opinion the Chelmsford Muslim Society are doing their very best not to be open and transparent.
This of course, may come as no surprise to many of you. We have tried to engage with the CMS for months, and invited them to address our public meeting on the 30/01/20. Sadly the whole board of 10 trustees, 4 volunteers , mosque elders, the Imam and 300 worshipers were too busy to attend. They’ve also been too busy to respond to questions we sent them on 22/01/20, and your questions from the meeting held on 30/01/20.
We are concerned to read the responses from some of the ward councillors, who are clearly just repeating a carefully crafted response from the Chelmsford Muslim Society (who have been assisted by a councillor who is a member of the Planning Committee).
In particular, variants of this statement seem common:-
“ It is my understanding that the new owners intend to continue to provide the Sport, Leisure and venue hire functions at Hamptons with two rooms dedicated for prayer. I am aware that over the past few weeks the main hall has been hired to CMS to facilitate socially distanced prayer and the hire of the main hall by a faith group is not new to the centre”
So the hall has been hired to the CMS to facilitate socially distanced prayer, really !
You’ll never guess who owns Hamptons Sports and Leisure Ltd ? Let’s check the Companies House listing.
You can check the full Companies House listing here. You might also notice that the registered office address for Hamptons Sports and Leisure Ltd is 13a Moulsham Street, Chelmsford, Essex, CM2 0HU, guess who’s address that is ?
We don’t believe for one moment that this is actually a “commercial hire”. And even if it were true, a regular booking to use the hall as Place Of Worship would still need planning permission (which the business owners would need to apply for).
If this is a legal hire, why go to the lengths they have to conceal the use :-
Why use an entrance away from the main road ?
Why park large white vans to try and hide the worshipers ?
Why tell worshipers not to use the car park and to park on the Clarion Gate estate ?
Why not be upfront and open about the use.
Why not use the Parkway mosque which is also Covid secure and reopened on 04/07/20
Of course the main hall at the Hamptons has been hired by faith groups before. But not on a weekly basis for congregational worship, which would need a D1 Place of Worship planning permission.
UPDATE
The Planning Department notfied the Chelmsford Muslim Society on 22/09/20 that they will require formal planning permission to use the Hamptons as a Place of Worship
