TEMPLE COMPLAIN OVER SALLY ARMY DECISION

A LETTER of complaint has been sent to the city council’s chief executive and local government ombudsman following plans to convert a car park into a homeless shelter.

Last month the council’s planning committee approved plans for a £60million Salvation Army hostel to be built on a public car park in Hillfields.

The 80-bed hostel will replace the Salvation Army’s existing building in Lincoln Street, which is being demolished as part of the council’s Swanswell Area Regeneration development.

The hostel will be moved to the car park in Howard Street and Harnall Lane West that is used by residents and congregations of the Shree Krishna Temple, GNP Gurdwara and St Stanislaus Kostka Roman Catholic Church.

But Coventry and Warwickshire Hindu Council has written to the ombudsmen after claiming proper procedures were not followed in passing the planning permission where councillors approved the plans by six votes to four.

Harish Dhokia, chairman of Coventry and Warwickshire Hindu Council, said: “We feel we have been mislead by the whole process. The council did not even tell us that it was considering selling it to private developers otherwise we would have signalled a potential interest. Questions need to be raised as to why there was this level of secrecy about the information given by the local authority.”

Two letters were sent out this week, one to Martin Reeves, chief executive of Coventry City Council and the other to the local government ombudsmen.

And a petition with around 2,000 signatures will be handed into a council meeting that was due to take place this week.

“We have no personal objection to the hostel,” added Mr Dhokia. “I cannot stress that enough. It will give a home to the people that need it and it’s a good service to provide. We just haven’t been consulted properly. A meeting was going to be held on February 9, but instead of saying it was going to be postponed the council said it was cancelled. The word cancel concerns me in that things will get approved without people being able to raise questions and objections.”

A spokesman for Coventry City Council said: “The petition will now go to cabinet member’s city development meeting on February 18.

“This is because the cabinet member will be asked for approval to publish a statutory notice to close the car park. This will start a consultation process to allow for views on this proposal.”