Group set up to fight mosque bid

Malcolm Davis, former councillor for St James' ward, says his phone has been ringing off the hook with residents complaining about the planning inspector's decision to overturn the council's rejection of the scheme.

The authority had thrown out the plans to create a mosque and community centre on derelict land in Hall Street.

The matter will now go to a public inquiry in June.

Mr Davis said public feeling against the mosque was just as strong as when the proposals originally emerged. Some 70 petitions containing more than 22,000 signatures were handed to the council from people protesting against the plans but Mr Davis said he was unsure if a further petition was the best way forward.

"I have had a lot of phone calls about this – dozens of them – and people have approached me in the street wanting to know what we can do. Everybody is worried and angry," he said.

"We have set up a working party and I will be asking everybody who wants to object to the mosque plan to turn up that night for the hearing, even if it brings the town to a complete standstill. Imagine if 15,000 people, which was near the amount of signatures we had last time, turned up.

"That would be a showing of our strength and our resolve on this issue, and that's what I want."

Mr Davis has blasted the inspectorate's decision to refer the plan to a public inquiry as "a coward's way out".

He said: "I'm adamant the people of Dudley don't want that thing there and people ought to respect their wishes.

"I think it's a disgrace that anybody from outside can overturn our council's decision – they don't have to live next to it when it's built. It will destroy the concept of a lovely medieval market town." Chairman of the Dudley Muslim Association Khurshid Ahmed has said he is hopeful the mosque plans will go ahead.

An inspector appointed by the Secretary of State will attend the hearing which will be held at Dudley Council House.

Dudley Council spokeswoman Katherine Finney pledged the inquiry would be open to members of the public.

The original plans were thrown out last February after a concerted protest campaign which was described by Councillor David Caunt, the leader of Dudley Council, as "the biggest in living memory".

Malcolm Davis described the rejection as a "victory for the people" – while Mr Ahmed condemned it as "the death of democracy".