17 Clifton Road, Birmingham, B12 8SX
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secretariat@ksmnet.org
Friday, 25 April 2025  
26. Shawwal 1446

Abbasi Islamic Centre Project

Documents for Community Consideration

The Building Committee has compiled a document which sets out, in summary, the following:

? an explanation of the Process that is being followed;
? highlights of the analysis of the census and surveys that have been carried out;
? an outline project budget;
? a summary of our requirements;
? review of both of the "Stay" and "Go" options.

Each option has been impartially analysed, with the analysis including:
? summary of facilities;
? estimated costs;
? strengths and advantages;
? risk overview & rating;
? outline initial sketches by the architects (as below).

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.

If you did not get a chance to take part in this survey, you can complete it online by clicking here. The survey will be open until Thursday16th August 2012 Inshallah.

Thanks very much for your time in helping us. If you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact the committee by emailingThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Member of Parliament for Hall Green, Roger Godsiff met with the President of Birmingham Jamaat Naushad Mehrali and Building's committee chairman Shaheed Fazal to discuss the community's aspirations to build a new community centre.
On Friday 6th July 2012, the president Naushad Mehrali, and Building Committee chairman, Shaheed Fazal, met with Roger Godsiff MP. Mr Godsiff is the MP for the Birmingham Hall Green Constituecy . The objective of the meeting was to introduce our community and seek Mr Godsiff's support for our aspirations of building a new centre.

Alhamdulillah, we have made good progress in the first 100 days and most of the pledges have been achieved. The table below sets out the pledges and a summary of what progress has been made in achieving each pledge. You will also see a link to an article explaining in a bit more detail about each pledge.

Pledge

Status

Comments
Publish a outline project plan listing the key milestones that we will be working towards and who will be responsible for them.

Completed

 - Please see here for the plan.
Engage local MPs and Councillors in order to canvass their support for our aspirations of building a new Community Centre

Completed

 - Meeting with Roger Godsiff on 5th July.
- Councillors in are co-ordinating diaries.
Arrange a meeting with planning officers and other specialists to understand Birmingham City Council's planning policies with regards to places of worship.

In Progress

- Architect has advised it is too early for this to be done – we should go with a specific scheme and once the project plan document has been completed.
- We have published a summary of the Council’s policy with regards to places of worship and this can be found here.
Kick start the process on following the WF Capital Projects Process, so we can raise money from other Jamaats around the world

Completed

 - Email sent to CoEJ to advise them that we would like to follow the process.
- Project plan being drafted in line with requirements.
- Meeting with Gulamabbas Kassam (CoEJ assessor) arranged.
Ask the volunteers of the Ghusal-Kaffan and other committees (e.g. Nyaz, Nursery) to visit other newly built Jamaats in the UK to learn from their designs (and feed that back to our architects).

·Postponed

 - Consultation panel has taken longer to set up than anticipated so a visit has yet to be arranged.
- Working to get this completed in Q4 2012.
Arrange a handover meeting (and publish summary minutes) with the previous MAP committee and the EC to ensure a smooth handover

Completed

 Meeting held on 5th April 2012. Minutes can be found here.

100-day Pledge: Arrange a meeting with planning officers and other specialists to understand Birmingham City Council's planning policies with regards to places of worship.

In making a pledge to meet with planning officers, I sought to understand the policies that would have an impact on what we build in our new centre. Unfortunately, I was only partially able to achieve this within my first 100 days of office. The reasons for this are as follows:
  • The architect and the property developer helping us to find a new site said that they had already made informal representations with the Council and would be able to guide us on the things we would have to bear in mind when submitting an application.
  • Having taken the architect's advice, and since we already have meetings arranged with the local MP and Councillors, I feel it is better for the community that this not be completed immediately.


Despite being advised not to meet with planning officers yet, I knew through the research the committee had carried that there is a Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) entitled Planning for Places of Worship and Faith-Related Community and Educational Uses. Therefore, in order to achieve the primary objective of understanding the actual policies that will affect our Community when submitting a planning application, I have summarised the key elements of the SPD in this article.

 

More Articles ...

  1. Engaging Local MPs and Councillors
  2. Starting the Capital Projects Process
  3. Learning From Other Projects
  4. Outline Project Plan
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