Vague and Undefined.
We have received a response from Town Planning to our email of 13.11.20.
Our team are unimpressed (to say the least) and we have responded with a number of questions that we need answers to !
Let’s start with the response from Town Planning :
“Thank you for your letter of 13 November on behalf of Save the Hamptons.
The question of whether planning permission is required comes down in this case to the difference between the proposed worship and religious teaching element of the use of the premises and the more limited use which had been taking place until the most recent lockdown. The Council has provided advice to Chelmsford Muslim Society (CMS) on the need for planning permission on two occasions, on 22 September and 5 November both on the basis of advice provided by the Council’s Legal Services and both in response to written information provided by Chelmsford Muslim Society.
Deciding whether a formal grant of planning permission is required for the use of a building in cases such as this is not straightforward. The Council needs to consider whether the worship and religious teaching use is so significant or to such a degree in the context of the lawful use that a change of use has taken place.
As you will know, during the summer, following a request from officers, CMS provided written information and drawings setting out their proposals for Hamptons. These details were considered by officers from the Council’s Planning and Legal Services. It was concluded that the extent of worship/religious teaching related use proposed was so significant that a formal grant of planning permission would be required. This information was relayed to CMS in September. This remains the officer view.
In September CMS were advised to appoint a suitably experienced planning consultant and to agree with officers a timetable for submission of the application. This was particularly in the context of the high level of public interest about the future use of the premises.
In late October CMS provided further written information setting out the use of the premises at that time. This was the first time that written information on what was then the current use of the premises had been provided to the Council. What also became clear during that time was that full range of worship and religious teaching activities (including undertaking internal alterations) as had previously been set out in writing to the Council by CMS, were longer term than the Council had envisaged. (It is understood that Covid-19 has to some extent been a factor here.) Consequently, a planning application to allow for more intensive worship related use of the premises was unlikely to be submitted in the near future. The additional written information gave an opportunity to the Council to consider whether the more limited worship and religious teaching use would need a formal grant of planning permission.
The further information received was that the community use of the building comprises mainly a range of diverse private hires of a non-religious nature and two religious elements. These are use i) of the main hall for an act of worship on Fridays for a period of 1 – ½ hours or thereabouts and ii) of a room on Saturday mornings by an external organisation IQRA, for hosting a youth group. This information has been considered by officers from the Council’s Legal and Planning Services. It is reasonable in assessing the case to conclude that the lawful “ community building” or “community centre” use of Hamptons is capable of accommodating a certain degree of public worship/religious instruction use provided this use is limited in nature and doesn’t take on the character of a more dominant feature in the community use of the premises. It is not unusual for example, for a community centre building, or part of it, to be used once a week (normally Sundays) for a Christian church service and even for another church related activity or a social function on another day of the week. This would not mean that a planning application would necessarily be required for that worship use.
It remains the view of the Council that it would be in the best interests of CMS for an application to be submitted for the proposed use, as set out in writing by CMS to the Council during the summer. If the application were submitted it would give an opportunity for local residents to comment on the proposals and, if approved would give CMS the flexibility to use the building in accordance with their longer-term wishes.
Regards,
Town Planning Services”
Our response
27th November 2020
Re: HAMPTONS SPORTS & LEISURE CENTRE
Thank you for your unsigned email dated 24/11/20.
We are unsatisfied by your response, and dispute that a building use that you previously investigated and confirmed as a breach of planning control (Friday prayers) can now be permitted as a lawful use. This appears to be a change of position.
We note in your response you have made no mention of the documented breach of planning control, and appear to be “sweeping it under the carpet”. Your email to residents dated 23/09/20 made no reference of the informal submission of plans by the Chelmsford Muslim Society, and your assessment referred only to the alleged breach of planning control being subject to investigation.
The current situation as it appears to us, is that you have simply allowed the Chelmsford Muslim Society to bypass the submission of a planning application to allow the current use, regardless of how many times you advise them to apply.
Since there is no formal application for planning permission to date, please can you confirm what part of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 you are using to permit the use of the premises for F1(f) Public worship or religious instruction (or in connection with such use).
The use for public worship and religious instruction has never been present at the club on a regular basis. We would contend that this new use constitutes a material change of use, since it has never been a regular part of the building use or a part of it’s Sui Generis classification.
Hamptons Sports and Leisure is not a community centre (as you have implied). The building has always operated as a sports and leisure facility, and this is reflected by the Valuation Office Agency entry as a “club and premises” and the Hamptons Sports and Leisure Ltd entry on Companies House which lists the clubs business as “Activities of Sports Clubs”.
The building has never held nor applied for the old D1 planning permission (now F2b), and since the new building use classes separate community centres from Places of Worship, it cannot be claimed or implied that Friday prayers is a permitted use “within class”. We also wish to point out that your “new information” was submitted after the new use classes became law on 01/09/20.
Your assessment regarding “increased use” is undefined, unquantified, and vague. Therefore, it cannot possibly be monitored, measured, or enforced going forward. In order for us to better understand the council’s position, please can you clarify the following points:
1) Please confirm and quantify what you consider “increased use”, in terms of;
a) Number of prayer sessions and/or religious instruction/education (per week)
b) Number of people attending for each prayer session / religious instruction
c) Additional rooms being used
2) How will the Planning Department monitor the current use with regards to assessing “increased use” for worship related activities, until such time a planning application is submitted?
3) If a change in the current use is reported, will it be investigated?
4) What enforcement process will you use to investigate?
5) How will you monitor events where larger attendance is likely, for example Eid and Ramadan, if no planning application has been submitted by that time?
6) Will you be allowing any further amendments to the current use that you deem as being permitted without requiring a formal planning application?
Regards,
On behalf of Save The Hamptons