A community centre volunteer has implored councillors to allow a charity to run an early morning breakfast club for children.
The charity Central Park Education & Welfare, which runs a community centre in East Ham, wants to change the hours set by the Town's Hall planning department to allow the centre to open as early as 5am.
However, planning officers at Newham Council have argued that change could cause “a significant increase in harmful noise”.
Councillors debated the proposals at yesterday’s (Monday 6 October) local development committee meeting.
Volunteer Zain Miah told councillors at the meeting that the earlier opening hours would allow the centre to run a breakfast club for children experiencing food poverty.
He said: “We really need this service in our community. In this borough, at the moment, I do not see many facilities for our generation.
"This is what we’re trying to provide [...] to the community.”
The community centre at 269 High Street South, East Ham was granted permission in 2019 for a: "change of use of the ground floor from existing restaurant to educational institute and community centre".
Currently, its permitted opening hours are 9am to 11pm Monday to Saturday, and 9am to 10pm on Sunday and bank holidays.
Earlier this year (July), the charity applied to Newham Council to extend its opening times to 4am until 11pm seven days a week, including bank holidays and its application was considered by councillors yesterday.
The charity's representatives told the council that the reason for the request to extend its opening hours was to enable it to run morning exercise sessions and a breakfast club - with the 4am start allowing for the delivery and preparation of food.
But council planning officers said this would be too disruptive for residents living nearby and recommended that councillors refuse the application.
The council officers' report said: "The surrounding area is predominantly characterised by a mix of terraced residential properties with established commercial uses at ground floor level."
It concluded that, if given the go-ahead, the community centre's extended operating hours could result in a significant increase in harmful noise and disturbance to adjacent and nearby residents, particularly during the early morning starts at 4am.
The council's planning officers also pointed out that the current restriction only applied to hours when the centre would be open to the public – and so did not include delivery times.
At the meeting, the applicant’s agent said the community centre was willing to settle for a 5am start, not including bank holidays.
Speaking in support of the charity's request for earlier opening hours, Labour councillor Larisa Zilickaja said: “I work as a teacher in a school - and I know that for many children their only opportunity to have lunch is in school.”
Cllr Zilickaja said the community centre organisers were “doing their best to support vulnerable residents”.
Likewise, Newham Independents councillor Mehmood Mirza also spoke in support, saying: “The breakfast club is a very good initiative. We need to encourage, to have, more community spaces.”
The committee as a whole voted to reject the planning officers' recommendation to refuse permission.
The application has therefore gone back to the council's planning officers, who will continue talks with the community centre's representatives.
It will then be presented again at a future committee meeting.
269 High Street South was previously subject to a planning enforcement investigation in 2019, following an alleged breach that involved a change of use to a place of worship: Central Park Community Centre Mosque.
