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A Bad Week For Minorities In The South

Jack Courtez | 17.03.2010 11:19 | Animal Liberation | Anti-racism | Repression | South Coast

This Week's goings on in Hampshire and Surrey including new regional infomation on institutional racism, religious intolerance and fox hunting.

Local Muslim resident's plans for a mosque to be constructed in Camberley were rejected by a planning applications committee last week, but in an interview yesterday their chairman vowed to appeal against it.

Some Surrey Heath Muslim Association members accused the vote of being influenced by the non local residence at the meeting and racism as found on Face book groups such as “say no to mosque in Camberley.” Councillors were quick to deny these claims, stating that the issue was the demolition of a locally listed building.

Black people in Hampshire are over Five times more likely to be stopped and searched as White people according to new figures by the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

Experts said this may be due to discrimination and stereotyping still being present in both society and policing.

77% of people support the hunting ban. However, at a public debate last week, the prospective Conservative MP Steve Brine attempted to out fox Patrick Davies, Winchester’s Labour candidate.

The Conservatives promised a vote on the subject, the Liberal Democrat councillor Martin Todd took the middle ground and only the Labour candidate rejected calls to re-instate what many see as a barbaric activity.

Residents in Winchester had mixed feelings :

Jack Courtez
- e-mail: Jack_Courtez@hotmail.com
- Homepage: http://outsider-perspective.blogspot.com

Comments

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Why demolish a listed HISTORICAL BUILDING?

17.03.2010 11:58

Lost of people think historical buildings are important, that's why English heritage lists them. There is a lot of support for this kind of conservation.

Why would the "poor minority group" chose to buy a special protected building if they want to build a new building. That is obviously going to give ammunition to the racist faction. They'll say: "these incomers are trying to destroy any trace of our history, any trace of a culture before their own" Not exactly a sensible choice for good race relations.

Well done to the council, protected buildings should be protected!

Find somewhere more sensitive to build a mosque, or worship in the building as is, and respect its history.

Anarchist; a self employed person who works from home.


Listed Buildings

17.03.2010 12:35

after the council let the listed building fall into dis-repair it started to fall apart.

the building was bought 14 years ago by the muslim community, they restored the building and looked after it.

if they didn't the building would have fallen apart. However, the building is not large enough to fit their needs with no disabled facilities and they have to use the kitchen to pray in.

with the current structural state of the building they would struggle to sell the school and so would not have the funds to build it somewhere else.

also loads of higher listed buildings have been demolished in camberely in the last few years without anybody raising so much as a finger.

anon


It's got nothing to do with racism or minorities

17.03.2010 13:20

The building is in basically sound condition. It is a former school. Built early 1900's. It is a listed building, because the community want it to be preserved.

If it no longer serves the needs of its owner, they must find new premises. Their current premises are already occupied by a listed building.

If we start disrespecting protected structure statuses, it will be a slippery slope which could see Stonehenge demolished to build a new road.

However if it was tesco wanting to distroy it, the law would no doubt be subverted.

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