Yet Another Smokescreen
“A community hub also used as the local mosque!”
We are sure that many of you will be scratching your heads at this description of the Hamptons Sports and Leisure Club. It was used by the BBC Look East team on 06/05/21 in a piece on the NHS Community Vaccination team, who used the Main Hall at Hamptons. You can watch the report here
Of course claiming that Hamptons is a community hub or community centre is nothing new. In planning terms it would be extremely advantageous for the Chelmsford Muslim Society to push this narrative, assisted by their virtue signalling Lib Dem mates.
Over the last 12 months we have seen some wonderful community uses of Hamptons, the Food Bank, the Yemen appeal, the community Ifthar event and the latest visit by the Community Vaccination Team. With the Blood and Transplant service booked in to visit in September, Hamptons are really going all out to prove their value as a community asset.
However, if you take a closer look at the timings of these community events, they are merely a smoke screen to deflect from activities that the Chelmsford Muslim Society don’t want local residents to notice.
Let’s start with the foodbank opened in partnership with the Trussell Trust and Chelmsford Foodbank. It came at at a time when the Chelmsford Muslim Society were under significant public scrutiny about the use of Hamptons for Fridays prayers, a use that still continues today.
The Hamptons Foodbank opened on 27/10/20, but hit a snag immediately. Local residents found the centre closed when they tried to donate and were told by Hamptons that “We are trying to get funding to be open during these hours”.
What makes this even more confusing is that Essex County Council made a grant to Hamptons Sports and Leisure Centre of £500 for “Food/PPE/and Essential toiletries” in September, so they had “funding” (evidence obtained under the Freedom Of Information Act).
Over the next few months, the Trussell Trust and Chelmsford Foodbank logos disappeared from the Hamptons Foodbank posters, and we confirmed that they were a separate entity. When asked by a local resident about why Hamptons were no longer partnering with the Trussell Trust and Chelmsford Foodbank, the response from a Hampton’s director was “It’s none of your business why we no longer partner”. Another resident was banned from Hamptons Facebook page for simply asking about the foodbank’s vouchering system.
It’s also probably “none of our business” why the Chelmsford Muslim Society took a second £500 grant from Essex County Council in November for “food parcels”. Our team is also confused as to how Hamptons and CMS qualify for two grants for the same foodbank (evidence obtained under the Freedom Of Information Act).
Having received £1,000 in grants, the Hamptons Foodbank has so far delivered 84 food parcels at a cost to Essex County Council of £11.90 per parcel, averaging just 3.5 parcels per week. Not exactly the best use of the grant money !
The most recent flurry of community activity has some local residents once again singing the praises of Hamptons.
Upon closer inspection, the Yemen appeal is merely the annual Ramadan appeal run by the Chelmsford Muslim Society, the Ifthar event claimed it was delivering 40 food parcels to vunerable families when in fact they really meant 40 individual meals and the NHS Community Vaccination Team visit was an attempt to deflect attention from the fact that the centre is being used for daily prayers. There is also the little matter of two upcoming Eid celebrations which could cause severe parking and traffic issues locally.
The use of the centre for daily prayers is of course a breach of planning control (read more here).
“You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.”
Abraham Lincoln