A FORMER Muslim leader has accused Dudley Council of being Islamophobic throughout the controversial 10 year battle to secure a site for a replacement mosque.

Dr Khurshid Ahmed said the Muslim community had "suffered enough" at the hands of the local authority and urged councillors to bring the matter to a conclusion.

The former chairman of the Dudley Muslim Association (DMA) made his plea as he gave evidence to Dudley Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Management Board on yesterday (Tuesday July 28).

Board members were deliberating whether the council should accept a £325,000 out-of-court settlement from the DMA and end attempts to buy back the Hall Street site.

If accepted, the DMA keep ownership of the land and proceed with plans to build a mosque and community centre but according to Dr Ahmed, the Muslim community are "angry and annoyed" about forking out "four times what the land is worth" and blamed the council for the current situation.

Dr Ahmed said a planning application was submitted in April 2005 but at the request of the council's then head of planning, it was withdrawn due to fears it would become "a political football" in the upcoming general and local elections.

He said following that, 117 requests from planning teams were "drip fed" to the DMA over an 18 month period, sparking further delays in resubmitting the plan.

Dr Ahmed said that "having complied with all requests" a second application was made in February 2007, but planners went against recommendations made by officers and refused permission.

He said: "Democracy in this borough was thrown into the sewers that night."

The DMA appealed the council's decision with the Planning Inspectorate and after a four day public inquiry, it was upheld - however the authority then requested a judicial review, which was dismissed.

While the dispute over planning permission was ongoing, the deadline for the DMA to start a substantial build on the land had passed - meaning the council had the right to pursue the buyback clause.

The council took legal advice from a senior barrister, who advised legal action should be taken to enforce the buy back or face breaching part of the Local Government Act and its fiduciary duties.

Dr Ahmed added that as the board was due to make a recommendation to the cabinet to either accept the offer or continue the costly legal dispute in the Court of Appeal, he was “concerned” that much of Monday’s meeting was spent “dwelling on the issue of internal disputes within the DMA”.

He continued: "We don’t want to wash dirty linen in public, those issues are internal. However the community is united about a new mosque.

"We need a new mosque, you all agree we need a new mosque, this has to be settled very promptly.

"We have suffered enough at the hands of the local authority being very, very, Islamophobic institutionally on this particular issue."

Board members will now discuss the evidence heard throughout the two-day meeting.

Their recommendation to cabinet will be made public on the council's website by August 7.

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