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An artist's impression Sikh Gurdwara
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Petition after 'horror' of Sikh Gurdwara plans

By Jon Nurse
April 19, 2012

Angry residents have filed a 160-signature strong petition condemning plans to build a Sikh temple in Earley.

Campaigners are warning that inadequate parking facilities would affect local motorists.

Phil Daniels, of the Earley Neighbours group, said: “To say that the general response was one of horror at the scale of the plans is probably not an exaggeration.”

The petition has been taken from roads directly around the proposed site and campaigners insist there is an extremely high percentage of objections in the area.

Residents in Earley had until today (Wednesday) to send comments to Wokingham Borough Council concerning the proposal.

The proposed two-storey Gurdwara would take the place of two homes in Wokingham Road.

Mr Daniels said: “The biggest area of concern is the issue of traffic and parking. The proposed plans include an underground car park for 51 cars which is woefully inadequate for the number of worshippers who will be attending on a weekly basis.

“The application actually states that there will be parking overflow into the neighbouring streets, so neighbours will have to endure their roads being clogged with cars for a facility from which they will gain, almost exclusively, no benefit.”

Parminder Singh, chairman of the group behind the development, said: “On average weeks, 90 per cent of our parking needs will be accommodated on the site.

“A lot of our people are living in the Earley area and will be walking. There is also a train station car park that can hold 40 cars on Sundays.”

The neighbourhood group insist its objections are not due to the nature of the building, but rather the scale of the project and the detrimental impact it would have on the community.

Members are concerned with potential risks of increased traffic flow along Wokingham Road, the noise impact of hundreds of people arriving and leaving the site, and the appearance of the building, which they believe to be out of character with the area.

Mr Singh said: “We have purposely tried not to build an Asian-style building. We plan to set the building off the road and surround it with greenery.”

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Most recent user comments 12 of 15

Cllr. Tahir Maher, it was rejected unanimously at the recent Earley Town Council meeting on exactly the points mentioned. I was at the presentation at the church. Non of the major concerned have been addressed. The numbers for the predicted attendance and the impact on the area simply do not add up...

Earley_Resident, Earley
20/04/2012 at 14:20

The Earley Town Council also unanimously rejected the proposals, stating exactly the reasons reported - I was at the meeting. Also, the presentation could hardly be classed as "working closely with the residents". A tiny fraction of the residents were informed about the plans and the people who attended sat with their mouths open at how big this project was. The numbers of expected cars quoted in the application are a joke, but then they were put together by the people making the application (not an independent survey). If it goes through there will be no way to police the situation. Also, you can't tell me that when its raining, people are going to park their cars half a mile away in the train station car park rather than in a nice juicy spot outside the Gurdwara on the surrounding residential roads.

Earley_Resident, Earley
20/04/2012 at 14:20

Looks like the final count was 195 signatures according to the submission on the WBC website. Also, it looks like there are close to 200 full blown objection letters...

Earley_Resident, Earley
20/04/2012 at 14:20

Cllr. Tahir Maher - I don't understand how anyone can think parking isn't going to be an issue. Every time I read about this proposal the number of possible worshippers differs and we aren't told where they are coming from i.e. whether it is possible to come by train or if they can all work etc... The reality is that unless people live near Reading/Winnersh/Wokingham train stations then they will drive instead of using the train. I saw in a previous article that on busy days up to 300 people could be expected to attend. I would expect this to mean at least 100 cars being used rather than the 50 suggested. That it is obviously my guess, but it is also obvious that people are going to under estimate to try and get a planning proposal through. I personally don't understand why local residents should have 10, 20, 30 or more cars having to park outside there houses because the site is unable to be self contained to meet its requirements. Roads are the public highway and reality is that anyone can park on them, but it is arrogant and rude to develop plans which assume that this will be the case.

Smiffy, Reading
20/04/2012 at 10:47

The problem as I see it is that when the residents most need parking, for friends and family, outside their own homes they will not be able to. It is therefore time to make sure that there is 100% parking availability rather than targetting 90% so that the local residents can mantain some sort of family life on Sundays.

Stig2, Wokingham
19/04/2012 at 20:34

Extend the Station car park problem solved

Sib69
19/04/2012 at 20:02

I knew a few of the Sikhs from the Earley community before I moved out. Very pleasant and impressive people they were too. They were genuinely concerned with the whole of their communty, and not just those of their own religious group.

If the houses to be converted are the ones I think they are, there is plenty of room for screening with trees. Most of the streets near there have driveways, so hopefully won't get too much inconvenience from parking.

Christian99
19/04/2012 at 16:37

The Sikh Community leaders behind this proposal presented this to Earley Town Council and I for one was very impressed. There was a long discussion on parking and I did feel that this was not going to be an issue - parking available on site, train station parking available and in the main people living locally who could walk to the Gurdwara. The general impression I got was that they had very carefully thought through their proposal, they have been at pains to emphasise that they wanted to blend into the community (reflected in the design of the Gurdwara). The Group also did a presentation (I believe) in one of the local Churches. If people have issues they should contact the Sikh community who are proposing this and talk through their concerns - and I think they will be surprised to see how well they have thought this through and how amiable they are.

Cllr. Tahir Maher, Earley
19/04/2012 at 15:46

If the parking issue is solved, will it then get built?

Damiano_Tommassi, Wokingham
19/04/2012 at 14:51

Agree totally with Paul - imagine the impact that 160 individual letters would have - far, far more than 160 names on a petition. A wise man once said that a petition is just a list of names of those people who don't feel strongly enough about sometjhing to write their own letter!