We were employed by the South London Islamic Centre (SLIC) to undertake transport planning work for the redevelopment of their site in Lambeth to provide a new purpose-built mosque and community centre. The proposed centre will build upon existing facilities provided at SLIC, including the provision of a bookshop, library, sports hall and gym, café at ground floor level, a creche for parents using other facilities within the building, additional classrooms, function and conference room provision, dedicated study room and additional prayer space.
Our work
We produced a Transport Statement, Travel Plan, Delivery & Servicing Management Plan, Visitors Management Plan, and Delivery & Construction Management Plan.
The scope
Friday lunchtime is the busiest period for the mosque with up to 1,000 worshippers at the Jumu’ah (congregational prayer), compared to around 150 on other days. Concerns were raised by the local authority that numbers attending might increase beyond this level, with the knock-on effect this could have on surrounding transport infrastructure. As a result, consideration was given to the capacity of various prayer rooms, methods to prevent other rooms from being used for this purpose (for example no intercom), and fire capacity.
Additionally, a sensitivity test was undertaken to determine the impact if there was an increase in usage; which indicated only minimal impact and change in vehicle generation of a level that could be accommodated on surrounding roads.
Surveys
iTRACE-compatible travel surveys of attendees were undertaken, with over 1,500 responses received over a week. This indicated that travel by foot and bus across the various prayer sessions accounted for just under 80% of trips. Around 15% arrived as car drivers.
Parking surveys of surrounding streets were also undertaken, broadly in line with the Lambeth methodology. Through the pre-application discussions with local authorities, as well as from comments received from the public in relation to previous applications, there were significant concerns over the impact of mosque attendees parking on surrounding roads, which are known to be close to capacity in terms of parking. Parking surveys showed no noticeable increase or change in demand during Friday's Jumu’ah prayers, the time when the mosque is likely to have the most considerable impact.
Controlled parking zone
A Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ) was introduced during the pre-application period, with the project team ensuring that the hours of operation were extended to include the Friday Jumu’ah prayer period, which has removed the majority of local authority concerns regarding parking demand.
