The controversial sale of the Drill Hall site in High Town to a Muslim group has been axed, with Luton Borough Council announcing yesterday (Dec 21) that homes will be built there instead.
At a secret meeting last week, members of the council’s executive decided that the site should be used for housing, rather than be sold to the Shia Muslim Masjid-e-Ali group for £1.5 million.
A spokesman for the group said its members were “extremely disappointed” by the decision.
The council had agreed to sell the site to the group for use as a community centre, but suspended the sale earlier this year after rumours were circulated in Luton by the English Defence League that the new building would be a “High Town Super-Mosque”.
A campaign followed by a group called House the People for new affordable homes to built on the site.
The council said the sale was suspended because of new policy guidance from Whitehall on the sale of buildings owned by local authorities.