Thurrock Planners Refuse Plan to Turn Stanford-Le-Hope Methodist Church Hall Into an Expanded Mosque

Thurrock Council officers refused plans for an expanded mosque with a funeral services basement at a former Methodist church hall in Stanford-le-Hope, citing heritage harm and missing highway commitments, according to a local report.

Planning officers at Thurrock Council in Essex have refused an application to turn the Methodist church hall on High Street in Stanford-le-Hope into a mosque with a larger building, a basement for funeral services and an external staircase, the local outlet Thurrock Nub News reported on Tuesday, September 29.

According to the report, officers based the refusal on two grounds: the effect of the proposed rear staircase on the heritage value of the building, and the absence of an undertaking or a section 106 agreement to secure highway mitigation measures. Section 106 agreements are legal commitments a developer gives a council to fund or carry out works linked to a scheme.

What the application proposed

The application, reference 26/00436/FUL, concerns Stanford Le Hope Methodist Church Hall, High Street, Stanford Le Hope, SS17 0EY, according to the council's planning portal. It describes a change of use from church to mosque within Class F1, the planning category for places of worship and education, together with extensive alterations.

Those works include additional floorspace, a basement for funeral services, eight rooflights and an external staircase at the rear of the building. Of those elements, the staircase is the one officers singled out on heritage grounds, according to the report, while the basement and rooflights were not cited as reasons for refusal. Nub News named the applicant as Ahmed Choudhury. Stanford-le-Hope is a town in the borough of Thurrock, on the north bank of the Thames estuary east of London.

Hundreds of comments, mostly objections

The application drew 420 comments on the council portal, Nub News reported: 384 objections and 35 in support. The objection count did not form part of the refusal grounds as reported, which turned on the building and on highway measures.

The outlet also noted that the council's highway officers had not objected to the proposal at an earlier stage. The highways ground for refusal rested on the missing legal undertaking to secure mitigation.

A hall already in use for worship

Nub News reported that the church and hall were sold in 2023 to the Stanford Education and Cultural Association, and that the hall was already being used for worship, education and cultural activities under the name Stanford Jamme Masjid. The outlet described the Methodist building as having served the town for more than 150 years.

The refusal therefore concerns the proposed building works and change of use, not the activities already taking place at the site.