A decision on plans to extend Hastings Mosque has been deferred to allow for design changes.

On October 21, Hastings Borough Council’s Planning Committee had been due to consider proposals to erect a single storey extension to the rear of the mosque building in Mercatonia.

Council planning officers had recommended refusal of the application due to concerns about the scale and design.

However, as the meeting began officers said they were updating their recommendation to a deferral.

Hastings Borough Council’s planning services manager Eleanor Evans said: “Just before committee we received an email from the agent acting on behalf of the applicant. They wanted the opportunity to amend the application.

“We simply didn’t have time to do that before planning committee, so they asked for an extension of time.

“We agreed with them, subject to the committee decision tonight … if there was a deferment, that we would agree to an extension of time to sometime in February to allow them to submit the application [and] for us to go out to consultation with members of the public.”

The committee heard how an amended application would not be guaranteed to return to a public meeting due to changes to national planning rules.

The new rules, due to come into effect from October 31, change what kinds of applications can be decided by councillors or should be decided by officers alone.

An extension would not usually be the type of application which goes in front of a planning committee.

But councillors also heard there is a mechanism — known as the gateway test — by which some “significant” applications may still be considered by a committee.

Ms Evans said she could not pre-empt what decision would result from this test, but said “there has been a lot of interest in this application”.

A report to the committee said the council received 78 letters of objection and 109 letters of support for the application. It also received two petitions — one objecting and one supporting.

The reasons for refusal proposed by officers related to the scale, massing and design of the extension.

They said it would result in “a detrimental impact on the residential amenities of the neighbouring properties in terms of loss of privacy, overlooking and perceived overlooking”, which would also ‘fail to take the opportunities available for improving the character and quality of the area’.

Officers also said the application had provided insufficient information about energy efficiency, noise mitigation measures and the level of excavation (and resulting land stability matters) required for the development.

For further information see application reference HS/FA/26/00140 on the Hastings Borough Council website.