BRACKNELL residents are divided over proposals for a new Islamic Community Centre on Cookham Road.
The Bracknell Islamic Cultural Society (BCIS) is hoping to create a new home for its community at an empty unit in Waterside Park.
Almost a thousand people have given their views on the plans so far, but hundreds of comments have come from people living outside Bracknell Forest.
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From the 690 comments of support, 156 were sent from residents who identified Bracknell as part of their address.
More than 100 were from addresses in Reading, 91 were from Maidenhead, 67 from Slough, 55 from London and 24 from Wokingham.
Letters of support were also sent from Birmingham, Norwich and Blackpool.
However, one supporter, from Birch Hill, said: “We support the plan for a Mosque in Bracknell, as this is much needed by the community as a whole.
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“Many locals who are forced to travel to other towns to offer Eid prayers, and have somewhere to generally pray their daily prayers, will have somewhere easier to get to, and it will add to the community.”
Of the 144 objections, most came from addresses in Bracknell Forest, with some coming from Winnersh and Wokingham.
One objector wrote: “Traffic and parking problems will increase in an already congested place. We regularly visit Bracknell to visit family and friends.
“The traffic is increasing by the day and having a mosque will mean trouble for the whole Bracknell community.”
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Unit C at Waterside Park was purchased by the BCIS from Bracknell Forest Council (BFC) for £950,000 in June.
The BCIS is a registered charity which was set up in 2006 and since 2016 the society has been using a single room in a council office space as its home.
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Its project to develop a new community centre was set up in 2017 and Bracknell Forest Council is still considering its planning application, which you can find by searching for '19/00753/FUL' on BFC's planning portal
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