The author of the “anti mosque” petition that was created to oppose a non-existent planning application in Wokingham has issued a call for more signatures from people in the borough.
Thomas Gillam told Wokingham Today: “We have now passed 1,500 signatures, which is the number Wokingham council needs to officially debate this issue.”
Wokingham Borough Council agreed to discuss with the Wokingham Islamic Centre the potential options available, which could include a dedicated mosque or Islamic centre for daily prayers. However, no plans have been set in place with no planning application yet submitted or approved by the council.
Despite this, a counter petition against the potential of a mosque in Wokingham was set up by Mr Gillam. He continued: “However the petition is being dismissed as they say there is no way to verify if the supporters are within the Wokingham borough boundary.
“This is false. I have postcode data from change.org that shows over half of the signatures are from within the borough.
“Of course, there are also a lot of signatures from all over the country as this has attracted national attention.
“We just need another 600-700 signatures from people from within the borough to reach their figure, then they will have no excuse not to respond.”
Wokingham Today understands that a petition debate would not be possible on a specific planning application, should one be submitted, as any concerns or objections would form part of the statutory consultation process.
