Mosque bid for old school building

Staffordshire County Council is selling the small Stowe Teaching Unit in Stowe Street, and the city's Muslim Community Association has confirmed that it will be making an offer. Association member Abdul Salam, aged 50, told the Express & Star: "We have been to view the building and we are planning to make an offer to buy it. It's in a lovely spot."

When the association first raised the idea of providing a mosque for Lichfield's growing Muslim population earlier this year it was met with uproar in many parts of the city.

Within days, around 1,500 people had joined an on-line group protesting against a mosque.

But Mr Salam, who established the Eastern Eye restaurant in Bird Street, said that the Islamic community in Lichfield needed a place to worship.

He said Muslims in the city had to travel to Birmingham or Burton to visit a mosque.

"We wouldn't change anything about the building if we got it," he said.

News that the Stowe Teaching Unit – which caters for pupils excluded from mainstream schools – is up for sale has already met with complaints from residents of Lunn's Croft, which backs onto the school and has a gated access down a driveway onto Stowe Street.

In the past motorists used the drive to get to the building before and after school, but elderly residents fear that when the building is taken over it will see a massive increase in traffic using the tiny cul-de-sac.

Mr Salam said: "I do have sympathy with the residents but we wouldn't create any problems. It would simply be polite and respectful people visiting the building to pray.

"There wouldn't be any loud music like there might be if it was turned into young people's apartments. We're not talking about putting a disco in there."

But Mavis Knight, aged 69, of Lunn's Croft, said: "If people are going to be using that 24 hours a day it's going to be dreadful."