A NEW LEASE OF LIFE FOR CITY CHURCH

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

A new lease of life for city church

A Victorian gothic church could be turned into a function hall.

Developer Altaf Gaffar has applied to Leicester City Council for permission to turn Grade II-listed St Saviour's Church, in St Saviour's Road, Spinney Hills, into a venue for events.

The church has been up for sale with an asking price of about £750,000 since March, 2011, after being put on the market by the Leicester Diocesan Board of Finance.

While it still belongs to the diocese, it is standard practice when selling churches for a preferred buyer to be selected, who then submits a planning application with the church, which then has to be approved before the purchase takes place.

A design statement submitted to the council by the developer's agent, Dinesh Tailor, of DT Designs, said the proposed function room would predominantly cater for events on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and bank holidays, for about 300 people.

It would also be rented out during the week for corporate meetings of up to 100 people.

Mr Tailor wrote: "The aim of the works is to provide the building with the necessary investment needed to arrest the decline in its fabric and ensure an economically viable future.

"All proposed alterations and particularly the internal elements were conceived to respect the existing structure and enable the original identity and purpose to be readily recognised."

The church was built in about 1875 and designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott, the architect responsible for the Midland Grand Hotel, at St Pancras station, and the Albert Memorial, in Kensington Gardens.

The proposal involves demolishing the former church school adjacent to St Saviour's, to make space for a 39-space car park. This was built in 1882 and, after being used as a school, was rented by Leicester City Council as a community centre for about 30 years, until 2008.

The church, which could seat a congregation of 1,000 people, shut in 2005 and has been targeted by vandals.

Mr Tailor's statement added: "The removal of the former community centre building and revised site layout will open the views from the north to display the full extent of the built form."

He also said the renovation would generate work for local tradespeople and the new use would "lead to employment opportunities" for local people.

A spokeswoman for the diocese of Leicester said the application was "good news."

"We care deeply about our buildings, whether they are churches that are in use or no longer in use," she said. "Having a building which will find a new place in the life of Leicester is always good news".

Grahame Lees, spokesman for the Leicester Victorian Society, said the group welcomed plans to bring the building back into use.

"It certainly wants some money spending on it," he said.

"It is a lovely building and hopefully it will be respected. Hopefully, this person will come along and spend the money on it and bring it back into use.

"We never like to see historic buildings sitting empty for longer than they need to."

The Mercury was unable to contact DT Designs or Altaf Gaffar for a comment.

OUR DIVERSE CITY SHOWN IN PICTURES

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Our diverse city shown in pictures

A photography exhibition exploring Leicester's diversity is taking place at an unusual venue – shop windows across the city.

Dozens of pictures will be on display at 20 shops in Belgrave, Highfields and Spinney Hills as part of the From Here and There exhibition until December 16.

Artworks are also on show in the street and at community spaces in the city.

The display looks at Leicester's cultural diversity, our notions of Britishness and also commemorates the 40th anniversary of thousands of Asians moving to Leicester after being expelled from Uganda.

It also marks this year's Olympic Games.

It is a collaboration between Leicester artist Ashok Mistry and award-winning Indian photographer Pablo Bartholomew.

Ashok said: "The exhibition is about celebration and the communities we have in Leicester, the way they co-operate and flourish."

He said it was also about looking at plurality, as Leicester is expected to be one of Britain's first plural cities, where there is no clear ethnic majority group.

Ashok said the pictures were being displayed in shop windows and on the street as the display was aimed at people not normally catered for in galleries.

Pablo, who is based in New Delhi, said the idea of the exhibition was "to bring out something on the streets".

He said that spreading the posters throughout Leicester was a "great way to communicate with different types of audience" and also "different areas of Leicester.

One of the shops which is displaying photographs as part of the exhibition is Milan's, in Belgrave Road.

Manager Kishor Chauhan said the shop took part in the exhibition "because it sounded very interesting".

A celebration event to mark the exhibition will take place tonight from 6.30pm to 8.30pm at Chennai Dosa, in Belgrave Road, Leicester.

For the full art trail and more details about the exhibition, visit the website: http://fromhereandthere.info

FINAL FLYER DROP

After my short stint at Kohinoor Radio on St Saviours Road, I decide to drop off some of the remaining flyers for Inter Faith Week at appropriate places in the area. It's lunchtime, the air is filled with appetising smells from the high concentration of restaurants and take aways (not to mention homes) - I'm starving and I'm skint. As I walk up into Spinney Hills, the Adhan (Call to Prayer) is sounding from the Jame Mosque in Asfordby Street. I drop off the flyers at the following spots:

• Masjid-i-Usmani, St Saviours Road
• Wesley Hall Methodist Church, Hartington Road
• Wesley Hall Community Centre, Hartington Road
• Shree Mandata Samaj Sahayak Mandal, Hartington Road
• Masjid-al-Farooq / Islamic Da'wah Academy, Berners Street
• Sunnah Bookstore, Maynard Road

I use up all the packs I have in my bag. I toy with the idea of heading back to the Welcome Centre, making up some more bundles and coming back out to Highfields to cover some of the places I've missed. But it's really not on. Sooner or later, I have to call time on this little pilgrimage. I've got to get the the last bits of paperwork to get in to Highcross this afternoon, showing our public liability insurance cover for the exhibition starting Sunday. There's the Favourite Faiths Photo exhibition to finish, never mind laying my hands on three trestle tables and matching tablecloths. I've still got to find speakers for the talks in the Adult Ed College ...

Photo above: Jame Mosque, Asfordby Street by Ned Trifle. Used with permission.

SURVEY PAINTS SPIRIT OF CITY IN ITS TRUE COLOURS

This is Samina Ali's First Person column, published in today's Leicester Mercury:

Survey paints spirit of city in its true colours

Is Leicester's reputation for managing community cohesion justified, asks Samina Ali?

The largest and most detailed study of Muslims in Leicester is published on Thursday. The research – by the Policy Research Centre, Markfield, and published by the Open Society Institute as part of its project looking at 11 cities in the EU – reveals interesting findings, largely positive, about the city.

This study reviewed Leicester's approach to integration and inclusion of Muslims in areas such as employment, health, education, policing and levels of civic and political engagement. It looked at how Muslims felt in Leicester in discussions on identity and belonging. It focused on three wards, Evington, Spinney Hills and Stoneygate, chosen for their high levels of ethnic minority population.

So what do Leicester's Muslims think? Seventy-two per cent of Muslims born abroad said they felt British, whereas 94% of second-generation Leicester Muslims consider themselves British. The responses show that they are more patriotic compared to Muslims in other EU cities and showed a stronger sense of belonging to the city. Also contrary to popular perception values held by Muslims were not much different to non-Muslims in Leicester.

But there are also challenges, and little room for complacency. As one of the researchers, I heard some of the difficulties of some Muslims in Leicester. In one focus group discussion, discrimination was talked about in relation to employment. One person said he applied for jobs and did not get to the interview stage and when he applied for a job with a non-Muslim name his application was successful.

While there were a lot of complaints about the national media, Muslims in Leicester painted a positive picture of their local media, especially the Mercury! The success of interfaith dialogue is also flagged up, particularly the role played by the Anglican Church in helping to manage a positive inter-faith ethos. But poor educational attainment and economic deprivation in parts of the city are seen as major challenges that affect people of all backgrounds.

The study recognises that Leicester offers a number of very positive practices for the inclusion of ethnic minorities, but it also makes a number of recommendations which address the need for further engagement by the council, media, police, and other key policy sectors, as well as the Muslim community itself.

Talking to and meeting Leicester Muslims, key stakeholders and the wider community gave me a sense of pride living in Leicester. Off came my rose-tinted glasses and I saw the real spirit of Leicester in its true colours.

Samina Ali is a Research Fellow at the Policy Research Centre, Markfield