Plans for a Hindu temple, withdrawn after complaints from locals over a lack of parking, have been lodged again with fresh proposals.
Plans for a Hindu temple, withdrawn after complaints from locals over a lack of parking, have been lodged again with fresh proposals.
The Shirdi Saibaba Temple Association of London (SHITAL) has made changes to its application for the 3,050 sq m of land off St Agnes Way, in Tattenhoe, which it hopes will make it acceptable to Milton Keynes Council planners.
Documents now available to view on the council’s planning website describe how the new two-storey temple and community hall will be made from recycled shipping containers. They intend to paint them a “rust orange” colour.
“Local residents were understandably concerned about a possible intensification of traffic and parking problems,” say the scheme’s advisers, Planit Consulting in their submission to the council.
“The level of on-site parking proposed has been increased from 44 to 55 spaces in accordance with the Highways Officer comments within the last application.”
They add that both Giles Brook School and Tattenhoe Sports Pavilion “have confirmed that on special feast days and wedding events overflow parking can take place on the school and sports centre car parks.”
SHITAL’s objective is to promote spiritual knowledge for the benefit of the public in accordance with the teachings of Shree Shirdi Sai Baba.
This includes “endeavouring that within 5km of any SHITAL temple and centre no one goes hungry”.
The site itself is an undeveloped piece of land owned by the Milton Keynes Community Foundation and is one of the slabs of land gifted to it by the city’s founders.
The temple will be on the first floor, with a community hall below, a dining hall and the priest’s residence, the plans say. The association is reckoning on attracting a maximum of up to 95 devotees on weekends and Thursdays. A plan for dealing with traffic has been sent to the council.
The planning agent says that the new Saibaba Temple MK will be available for hire to any resident of Milton Keynes, irrespective of their colour, race, ethnic, religious or national origins.
The supporting statements say: “There is an undisputed need for the proposed temple.
“For more than 30 years, Hindus living in and around Milton Keynes have been increasingly keen for worship space in the area.
“Currently the nearest Shirdi Sai Baba Temples are located in Leicester and Wembley, over an hour’s drive away.”
They add: “However due to local demand for a place of worship, since March 2011, weekly services have been carried out at the Saibaba meeting place in the Westcroft District Centre.
“The proposed temple will allow SHITAL to develop and enhance its services for the benefit of worshippers and the local Milton Keynes community as a whole.”
There is a deadline for the council planners to decide of Monday, April 27, 2020.
