An £18 million mosque and community centre for Dudley has been thrown out against the advice of planning experts – but the battle will almost certainly continue with an appeal.
One man was arrested during scuffles outside the meeting to consider the plan which prompted the biggest protest campaign in memory.
Anti-mosque campaigners cheered after proposals for a £6 million mosque with 65ft minaret and £12 million community centre were rejected by all nine members of the planning committee. But chairman of Dudley Muslim Association Khurshid Ahmed today said the bid to build the mosque would almost certainly continue.
UKIP councillor Malcolm Davis, who was among the leading objectors to the scheme, was met with claps and cheers as he left the council building. He said: “This victory was a victory for the people of Dudley who have spoken out in their masses against this plan.”
icBirmingham, 28 February 2007
The fascists of the BNP are celebrating the fact that “every Labour and Conservative councillor had voted against the planning application. You have to ask yourself ‘Why don’t they vote against mosque applications elsewhere?’ The answer to that is that the Black Country BNP is breathing down their necks, and they KNOW IT.”
BNP news article, 1 March 2007
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