Sandra J Stewart
Borough Solicitor
Council Offices, Wellington Road
Ashton-under-Lyne, Tameside. OL6 6DL
e-mail :
Call Centre0161-342 8355
Fax0161 342 2747
Doc Ref
Your Ref:
Ask forSandra Stewart
Direct Line0161 3423028
Date31 March 2011
Dear Mr Tumulty,
Request for a review
Thank you for your email. As requested I have undertaken an internal review of the handling of your FOI request.
Your request was for:
"How many Mosques are in Tameside? List locations please"
The Council's original response to your request was:
"The Council does not hold this information. We do have links with all faith groups in Tameside, particularly through the Tameside Third Sector Coalition. However we do not have a comprehensive list of all Mosques in the Borough. I have checked with the business rates team, the licensing office and the policy unit who help the Council discharge its statutory duties in relation to equalities. None of them hold this information."
You have requested a review of the Council's original response because you consider that we should hold this information because mosques are not required to pay council tax and because a mosque would require planning permission.
Obtaining information from local taxation records
You are correct that mosques (to the extent that they are a place of worship) as if the cases with Churches and other places of worship do not have to pay either council tax or national non domestic rates. For this reason they are not included in the rating list prepared by the Valuation Office Agency (just as agricultural land is not included in the list. I have asked the manager of the Council's non domestic rating section and he confirms that it is not possible to produce a comprehensive list of mosques from the information on the rating list.
The rating list is available online:
From this site you can carry out a search which displays all entries in a postal district (eg OL6) and this way by searching for every postal district in Tameside (these are principally M34 M43 SK14 SK15 SK16 OL5 OL6 OL7) you will be able to see what information the Council holds, but it will not be able to produce the total number of Mosques in Tameside or comprehensive list of their locations, because Mosques are not shown in the list.
Obtaining Information from Planning Records
Planning permission is required for certain changes of use and for new buildings or for significant changes to existing buildings. However mosques are not infrequently situated in former churches. A change of use from a mosque to a church would not, unless significant alterations were made, require planning permission. It is therefore not possible to produce a comprehensive list of mosques from planning records.
It is of course correct that some information about planning applications concerning mosques will be held by the Council, but it is extremely unlikely that every mosque has applied for planning permission.
If you visit the following location on the Council's website:
You can perform search across Tameside for all planning applications made over the last 10 years or so whose description contains the word "Mosque". This will show up every planning application over the last 10 years or so where "Mosque" has been used in the description on the application form. Such a search will provide some information about Mosques but will not enable us or you to produce the total number of Mosques in Tameside or comprehensive list of their locations, because there will not necessarily have been a planning application at any time relating every Mosque.
Other ways we have considered collating the information
In addition to the ways you suggest in your review, the Council has also contacted the Licensing Office the Policy Unit who advise the Council on equalities matters and they do not hold the information you require.
Conclusion
We have carefully considered whether or not there is any way in which the Council can provide the information to you and unfortunately we cannot provide you with the information you require as we do not have it. This response represents the Council's final formal consideration of this matter.
If you are dissatisfied with the outcome of your complaint, you may apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: The Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF and at
Yours sincerely,
Sandra Stewart
Borough Solicitor