Campaigners delighted at new move to save their under-threat Hindu centre of worship in Peterborough

At the end of a four-hour-long meeting of Peterborough City Council’s sustainable future scrutiny committee, councillors agreed to demand a second look at proposals to sell the New England Complex in Lincoln Road, Millfield, to the highest bidder.

Several members of the scrutiny committee had complained that the decision to sell, which was taken by the council’s ruling cabinet last month, did not take into account the value of the centre that has been used by the Hindu community for 40 years.

The building on Rock Road has been home to the Bharat Hindu Samaj for 40 years and serves an estimated 13,500 Hindus from across Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Lincolnshire.

The council wants to sell the asset as part of its battle to balance its budget and the cabinet had approved two bids but not accepted a £1.3 million from the Bharat Hindu Samaj.

Members of the scrutiny committee agreed that the decision should be sent back to cabinet to ensure that councillors had considered all the data that related to the centre’s value to the community.

They also demand that over the next six months action be taken to find the community a new home if its current tenancy could not be secured.

Afterwards, community spokesman Dinesh Odedra said: "I am delighted with the decision and really pleased cabinet is going to revisit this.

"It is democracy at work.

"It is for the council officers to find us somewhere.

"At the moment we have a site that is suitable for us and we have kept our hope there.

"Our senior members have passed away with that hope. We have got the right site

He added: “The Hindu community has been here for 40 years

"We were only give a few weeks to consider the bid process

He warned: “It may be that we will seek a judicial review and that could cost the council a lot of money.

Councillor Mohammed Jamil, the finance cabinet member for Peterborough City Council said: “We knew the decision might be subject to call in.

"They’ve not said we made the wrong decision just that we should have had more information before we made that decision.

"We are going to have a look at the paperwork we did not have sight of before.”

Councillor Roger Antunes, one of the three councillors to call in the December decision, had urged the committee to refer the decision back to cabinet for members to have a look at its true value to the community.

He said: “It seems this administration understand the prices of everything but the understands the value of nothing.”

He also said there had been no meaningful consultation between the council and the centre and that Bharat Hindu Samaj, the principal user, had not been given enough time to put a bid together once the council had announced its intention to dispose of the building.”