Places of worship can cause conflict within communities and there should be a restriction on their numbers in ‘secular’ Leicester, a councillor has said.
Rita Patel raised the issue in a recent meeting to discuss the city council’s planning policy, where she said she was concerned that council-owned buildings were being sold off for religious use.
Coun Patel, said: “How many more religious buildings are we going to give permission to build in the city? I have nothing against religious buildings being built, but I do feel really strongly that in a secular city we are now in the position of getting rid of city council properties - which are civic spaces that belong to every citizen as of right.
“Every time one of those buildings is sold to a community there are people in this city who lose the use of this space. For me, people’s faith is very important and spirituality is very important but what is really very important in a diverse city like this, is that all people feel they have access to open spaces and buildings that belong to them as citizens.
“That is why we really need to think because planning permission has been given historically for buildings that are inherently causing conflict for those local communities.”
However council head of planning Grant Butterworth said religious buildings fell under community and leisure use in current planning policy and it would not be possible to cap them.
