Council grants 999-year lease to church-led community project
Hindu Samaj Northstowe
The first Hindu temple proposed by the British has faced a huge setback.
The South Cambridgeshire District Council granted a lease of 999 years for a project involving a church.
Thus, the proposed land will not be used for the Hindu organization.
The project will involve a church, a Muslim prayer hall, and an education center.
The local people have set up a Hindu Samaj Northstowe charity organization for the temple project.
This organization was proposing the building of a Hindu temple along with an interfaith and wellness center.
But the council made its decision after considering different proposals.
The proposal of the Hindus got 65 percent in the evaluation process.
On the other hand, Northstowe Church Network got 81 percent.
Thus, the council granted the land to the church-based organization.
The approved project also involves a permanent Islamic prayer hall.
Apart from that, it also includes an education center for the local Muslim community.
The Northstowe Muslim community claimed that there are more than 200 Muslims living in the town.
Local Hindu families were not happy about the council’s decision.
President of HSN, Aparna Nigam-Saxena, doubted the openness of the procedure of assessing the project.
According to her, the organization scored poorly due to poor financial records.
However, as she stated, the council had never explained the significance of the documents to the Hindus.
Moreover, according to her, they could have produced more documents and even an architect’s report.
Currently, HSN is preparing an appeal against the decision.
At the moment, Cambridgeshire has several churches and mosques.
However, the county has no Hindu temple yet.
Because of that, Hindu families have to travel almost two hours to London, Birmingham or Wembley to attend temples.
Since there is no permanent temple, organizing various festivals becomes hard.
It becomes impossible to arrange such events as Ganesh festival, Maha Shivratri, and Yajna.
Idols are stored in garages and bags.
Many Hindu families have said that young people find it difficult to participate in their traditional religious ceremonies.
They feel that links to culture are slowly disappearing from Britain.
On the other hand, Dr. Lisa Redrup who is a member of the council justified this move.
She explained that each proposal was evaluated against certain criteria.
Additionally, all applicants were required to provide financial information and project proposals.
Lastly, the council decided according to those criteria of evaluation.
Hindu Samaj Northstowe
