East Ham religious community centre defies council enforcement notice as third planning bid fails

A religious community centre on a residential street in Plashet has been ordered to stop running – as it does not have planning permission.

The East Africa Muslim Cultural Group (EAMCG) in Derby Road failed to overturn a council planning enforcement notice in January. It also then failed to win planning permission for educational use this month.

Newham Council planning documents say the group’s headquarters is “in use as an unauthorised community centre, including as a place of worship”.

EAMCG first applied back in December 2013 to change the use of its offices at 75 Derby Road – which are behind the street’s row of terraced houses – into a youth club. However, the council received four objections from neighbours and a petition signed by 87 people who were against the plan, warning of noise and disturbance.

Officers refused to grant planning permission, saying that the change would “generate unacceptable levels of noise and nuisance” on the residential street. The group then also lost its subsequent appeal to the government’s Planning Inspectorate.

Despite this, EAMCG still appears to be using the site as a community centre, a place of worship and as a radio station. Its website advertises prayers, events, venue hire and teaching at its Derby Road headquarters.

The council issued EAMCG with an enforcement notice in 2022, ordering it to stop, against which the group also appealed. EAMCG argued that it had been using the site as a community centre for more than ten years. Under planning law, this would make it too late for the council to take enforcement action.

However, the Planning Inspectorate again ruled in the council’s favour in January this year. The council submitted evidence to show that when its officers visited the site in 2012, it had been vacant.

The inspector found that, in 2016, EAMCG had tried to hide the planning breach from council enforcement officers, rendering its appeal invalid.

EAMCG then submitted a retrospective planning application in February, seeking approval to use the site for educational purposes. However, when council officers visited in March, they found the site was also being used as “an education centre, charity offices and community radio station”.

Planning officers also noted the website still listed “weekly religious classes and other services held at the subject address”.

A council report stated that the Town Hall received noise complaints about the building’s existing use. Officers said its use as an educational facility would “cause levels of noise and disturbance that will significantly disrupt neighbouring occupiers”.

The council refused the application on Thursday 7 May. However EAMCG’s website still advertises daily prayer sessions.

EAMCG did not respond to a request for comment.