Mosque hearing rally cry (From Halesowen News)

Mosque hearing rally cry

11:12am Wednesday 28th May 2008 in Black Country News

A DUDLEY councillor is calling on the people of the town to "create crowds" outside Dudley Council House as the future of the mosque is discussed inside.

For two days in June (10 and 11) the planning inspectorate from Bristol will be holding a public inquiry as to whether the council were right to refuse the application made by the Dudley Muslim Association last year.

The council's development control committee unanimously rejected the proposals after the project received opposition via petitions with more than 22,000 names.

However councillor Malcolm Davis is urging people to turn up to the council building to "show by example what chaos will ensue."

He said: "I want to create some problems for the council. If the mosque is allowed to go ahead, we are going to have problems with crowds almost on a daily basis.

"The council is not going to be able to cope with crowds on that day. We need to show the planning inspector the difficulties that the mosque will cause."

Cllr Davis also asked residents to show their support by flying a flag on the two days the inquiry is being held.

He said: "I think it is important for everyone to fly the flag every day, but it would be nice if we all flew them on those two days to show our loyalty to our town.

"I have a flag flying permanently on my house and I also had one on my car until it recently fell off."

A spokesman for Dudley Council said: "The inquiry is a formal process, run by the inspector, and is open to the public. The public gallery in the chamber has a capacity of 50."