Salamun Alaykum,

The month of Shahr Ramadhan has flown by, and I pray that Allah (s) accepts all of our efforts in the Holy Month. Alhamdullilah we have made significant progress during August, which I would like to share with you.

Referendum

The results of the referendum will be announced on Thursday 27th September 2012. On the day that the results  are announced, there will also be a short presentation by the Building Committee on the next steps.

InshAllah, over the next two weeks we will be bringing all the work we have done over the past 180 days; so that the Community can make an informed decision. We intend to post a summary of the information by mail, with the full information pack being made available online and on request from the Jamaat Office. 

At the moment, we are awaiting final draft sketches from the architects, which will allow us to prepare outline costings for both the "stay" and "go" options, which will be presented to the Community.

Prospect Place

During August we have held two meetings with the owners of Prospect Place, which is the industrial site adjacent to our complex. Our aim in meeting with the owners was to try and explain to them what we are trying to do and to find out whether they would be willing to sell the whole or part of the estate to the community. Our discussions are in very early stages and will only be taken further if the community decides to vote to stay at Clifton Road at the referendum.

Matthew Boulton

During the month of Ramadhan we also held meetings with architects, building surveyors and the Council in relation to the Homes and Community Agency's site of the Old Matthew Boulton College (on the Bristol Road / Belgrave Middleway. Again, our aim was to understand the viability of the site for our community and the HCA / Council's aspirations. Although this is a potential site, we are also looking at other sites, which have included in recent months Pebble Mill (Edgbaston) and a site in Tyseley. If you have any suggestions, please let us know.

Imambargah Foundations Investigation

One of the key questions our architects and quantity surveyors identified is the viability of building an additional storey upon the existing Imambargah. To this end, we asked a firm of structural engineers to conduct an investigation as to the strength of the foundations. In order to complete this investigation, they have dug seven trial pits to physically inspect the foundations. They have stated that based on the trial pits and their preliminary calculations, a three-storey building could be accommodated on the current foundations. However, they have stated that the foundation-loading should be re-assessed once the confirmed details of the project are known.

Results of recent survey

On Saturday 11th August, The Building Committee carried a survey at the mosque asking community members to rank different facilities that could be built in order of importance. The idea behind the survey was to get some sort of direction on which proposals to present at the referendum. The results of the survey were as follows:

InshAllah in the next two weeks, Jamaat Members will receive the Referendum Summary Information through the post. I hope that you will all consider the information contained there (and on the website) carefully, and I look forward to seeing & speaking to you all at the EGM.

Regards,

Shaheed Fazal
Head of Building Committee