Kingsway International Christian Centre (KICC) was refused permission to turn the former Rialto building in Church Road, Crystal Palace, into a place of worship by Bromley Council in December 2009.Are there? From whom?
In June last year the centre said it would not appeal the council’s decision but as it prepares to open its doors later this year, there are still fears about what will go on inside.
Picture Palace Campaign, which wanted the building turned into a cinema, says the KICC has been reluctant to meet to discuss its plans.And just why should it have to meet with them?
It bought the building, it requested a change of use, that request was turned down, it’s changed its business plan, and this has what to do with this pressure group?
Its chairman Annabel Sidney said: “There is an emerging view that once 25 Church Road is put into active use by KICC it will be lost to local people along with its potential to positively contribute to the regeneration of Church Road and the district centre.”Hey, if you wanted to have a say in what use the building was put to, why didn’t you put up the money and buy it yourself?
But the centre maintains it still plans to use the building to show family friendly films and allow the hall to be used by community groups, along with a bookshop and a coffee shop.Sounds to me like it’s going to be ‘positively contributing to the regeneration of Church Road’.
Certainly far more so than an abandoned cinema.
The centre's chief operating officer James McGlashan said: “The building has got planning permission for D2 use and D2 use is not for church services.So why all the fuss?
“We want to keep it as a large hall for community use.
He added: “It will supply a different sort of niche.”
7 comments:
Personally, I have no time for religion .. any religion & consider it to be the world's longest running con trick ..
But .. I doubt a word of protest would have been uttered by anyone if the followers of the so-called "Religion of Peace" had bought the place ..
I wonder if this somehow is (hopefully) a sort of warning shot across the bows of, let's say, some repressive cult alien to the UK who wants to convert buildings to areas of segregated 'worship'
Could be that if you give in to one religious group, however sound, there are weasels from other such groups who will stop at nothing to insist on the narrowing of human freedoms.
No idea who that group could be, but just sayin'.
Why couldn't they turn it into a Church?
It's not as though it is in a residential area.
And, yes, the campaigners could have bought it themselves.
Actually, it is a residential area. I live opposite the damn thing.
Crystal Palace is a bit Guardian reading, so I suppose they thought a cinema would be lovely for the area, but not lovely enough to actually spend their own cash.
I'd prefer a cinema to another happy clapper church (there are a fair few around the area), but the cinema campaign was all about whining to the council rather than buying the place and making it a cinema so I didn't bother signing up.
They only started making noise about wanting a cinema when they found out it was going to become a church.
How did a cinema get built in a residential area?
There are plenty of smaller cinemas in residental areas. Just down the road in Beckenham they have a small Odeon within seconds of people's front doors.
It might also have been built when the area was commercial, and it became more residential?
I don't know really, I just know that I can see an old building that was a bingo hall until a couple of years ago.
"I doubt a word of protest would have been uttered by anyone if the followers of the so-called "Religion of Peace" had bought the place..."
They might well have, but they'd be instantly dismissed and ignored...
"... I suppose they thought a cinema would be lovely for the area, but not lovely enough to actually spend their own cash."
Spot on!
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