PLANS to build a mosque in Chipping Norton have been approved by councillors today.

West Oxfordshire District Council’s uplands area planning subcommittee approved the change of use application for a former chiropodists in Hitchmans Mews, off West Street, this afternoon.

Residents and Chipping Norton Town Council had raised concerns about additional noise, parking and the loss of retail space.

The town council voted to oppose the application put forward by Tahirul Hassan, himself a town councillor, at their meeting on January 21.

 

The father-of-three intends to rent the ground floor room for prayers five times a day, seven days a week and wants the mosque to be open from sunrise to sunset.

The 2011 Census recorded there were 34 Muslims in Chipping Norton, of a population of 6,337.

At the moment, people come from Moreton, Stow, Shipston, Woodstock and Witney to pray in Chippy while the nearest mosques are in Banbury, Oxford and Cheltenham.

 

Mr Hassan started Friday prayers in the town hall seven years ago.

For more on this story see Thursday's Cotswold Journal.