Newham Council has taken legal action to compel the Riverine Trust to stop using the Abbey Mills site as a mosque and demolish temporary buildings.
It has lodged papers at London’s High Court and is waiting for a hearing date.
A spokesperson for the council said: “Our planning policies promote the development of the Abbey Mills site for a mix of residential and employment uses, to create a new local centre near West Ham station.
“The Riverine Trust gave assurances at the public inquiry in February 2010 that the site would be redeveloped within two years according to these policies and a mixed-use application would be submitted. It voluntarily committed to this in a legally binding Unilateral Undertaking that meant the Trust had to stop using the site as a mosque and demolish the existing buildings if it failed to comply.”
By the end of February 2012 deadline that undertaking had not been complied with; the site was still being used as a mosque, no buildings removed and no mixed use planning application submitted. The authority is currently consdering a different planning application for a large mosque on the site in Canning Road, West Ham.
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