Standards board to probe mosque plan

PLANNING PROBE . . . The land where planning permission has been granted for a new mosque.

A councillors’ watchdog will investigate complaints from two Oldham MPs about the fast-tracking of plans for a new mosque.

Six senior Liberal Democrat councillors have been reported to the Standards Board for England after plans for a new Waterloo Street mosque were classed as urgent business and approved in March.

A former Lib-Dem councillor is also named.

Labour MPs Phil Woolas, Oldham East and Saddleworth, and Michael Meacher, Oldham West and Royton, passed their dossiers to the Board this month.

The MPs have questioned if there were any planning grounds to bring the proposals forward before the local elections.

Mr Woolas also included e-mail traffic between the planning committee chairman, Councillor Roger Hindle, and officers who asked what the reasons were for the plans to be classed as urgent business.

The MPs have also have pointed out that senior Liberal Democrat councillors went to a rally in support of the mosque four days before the planning committee meeting.

Today the Board’s spokeswoman said: “I can confirm the Board has decided there will be an investigation by one of our ethical standards officers.”

The complaints involve the committee chairman, Councillor Roger Hindle, and the leader and deputy leader of the council, Councillors Howard Sykes and Jackie Stanton.

Also named are Cabinet members Lynne Thompson, who was responsible for finance at the time, Mark Alcock (environment), new Cabinet member Mohammed Masud, and former councillor Mohib Uddin, who was responsible for regeneration.

The Board has powers to throw out the complaint, or if it is serious enough to forward it to an Adjudication Panel which has powers to suspend or disqualify councillors.