A proposal for a prayer hall and community centre is to be scrutinised by councillors next week.
The South Lakes Islamic Centre at Dalton would be built on land on the outskirts of Dalton at Crooklands Brow, Ulverston Road. The planning application will go before Barrow Borough Council’s planning committee on Tuesday.
It is recommended for approval in a report produced ahead of the meeting.
A spokesman for SLIC previously said: “We ideally wanted it to be close to the Furness General Hospital but couldn’t find a suitable property/land and hence Dalton became the next best option, covering Askam, Ulverston, Lindal, Urswick and Greenodd.
“Furness General Hospital itself has 40-50 practicing Muslim doctors/clinicians, plus the additional families of professionals, business communities and other trade workers who will need basic prayer, burial, teaching and community facilities.
“Now the closest mosque is Lancaster which is 50 miles away and due to the lack of basic facilities we see a big attrition rates amongst the Muslim families who leave for other more established towns.”
Forty-five responses to the application have been received with 17 in support, 21 objecting, and seven neutral. Concerns were raised over traffic, potential noise and disturbance and the scale and design of the building.
Cumbria County Council’s highways department has requested a pedestrian refuge be installed to improve pedestrian safety.
“It is considered that the proposal will increase the numbers of people crossing Ulverston Road and therefore increase the risk of conflict and accidents,” says a highways spokesman in the report.
“Therefore, the local highway authority request that a pedestrian refuge is funded by the applicant which is to be located in the Yarlwell area.”
The report notes that the site was allocated for employment use.
“However, despite the granting of planning permissions and numerous marketing attempts, with the exception of the formation of the site entrance, the site has not been subsequently developed,” it says.
“Both local and national policies recognise the need for flexibility with sites which do not advance, allowing alternate uses to be considered where it can be demonstrated that the site has no demand or is not viable for its allocated use.”
The report said the development provides ‘sufficient’ off-road parking – 17 spaces, including one for disabled parking and one for a minibus, and an additional motorcycle space – to meet its needs.
“The development contributes positively towards the wellbeing of the community through the provision of public prayer and community space to engage with the wider community,” it added. “This plays an important social role which weighs in favour of granting permission.”
It said ‘existing background noise from a busy road alongside separation from dwellings of approximately 50m’ prevents ‘any concerns with general noise or loss of privacy for neighbours’.
