Peterborough mosque’s loudspeaker application to be reviewed after council ‘mix-up’

Last month, members of Peterborough City Council’s Planning and Environmental Protection Committee refused the proposal for an amplified call to prayer three times a day at Masjid Ghousia in Gladstone Street, Millfield, due to noise concerns.

However, the application will now be reviewed after the council realised a mistake had been made with the consultation process.

A council spokesperson, said: “The city council’s Planning and Environmental Protection Committee recently considered a call to prayer planning application for the Ghousia Mosque.

“The day after a decision was made by members of the committee to refuse the planning application, officers discovered that due to a mix-up the wrong planning application form had been published on the council’s website - indicating that the application was for a new building and not a call to prayer.

“While all of the other consultation documentation published by the council in the media, directly to nearby homes and on its website was correct, there was the possibility that someone might have looked solely at the application form when responding to the consultation. Therefore, they could have responded to the consultation with a view based on the wrong information

“In order to ensure that the true democratic process is upheld, we are therefore opening up the consultation again and the application will be considered again in full at a forthcoming meeting of the Appeals and Planning Review Committee in March.

“Those who have submitted consultation responses already do not need to re-submit these unless they were under the impression that the application was for a new building, rather than a call to prayer.”