NEGATIVE reaction to plans to build a Muslim prayer centre and community hall in a Furness town has been condemned.

Proposals for a dedicated community hall and prayer centre in Dalton for Muslims have been submitted to council planners.

Figures in the town have called for tolerance and acceptance in response to a number of comments online ‘demonising the Muslim community’.

Dalton South Councillor Shaun Blezard, who is a member of the anti-discrimination group Rock Against Hate, said: “The Furness area has always welcomed people of all faiths to the area, from the Cistercian monks who arrive in the 12th Century to found Furness Abbey to many other places of worship that arrived with the migrant miners in the 1800s.

“I personally welcome another community space where people have the freedom to practise their beliefs in peace and freedom.

“In Dalton we have a close community that look out for each other and a few people spouting hate does not reflect the views of most of the residents of Dalton and the wider Furness area.”

The group behind the plan appears to be the South Lakes Islamic Centre, a charity set up in 2018.

An entry on the Charity’s Commission’s website says the group’s aim is ‘to establish or to secure the establishment of a community centre, to maintain it, and to manage to co-operate with any local statutory authority in maintenance and management of such a centre.

They also say the charity was set up to ‘ to advance the Islamic religion in South Lakes for the benefit of the public or benefit the residents of South Lakes and the neighbourhood, without distinction of sex, sexual orientation, race or of political, religious or other opinions’.

It adds its purpose is ‘associating together the said residents and the local authorities, voluntary and other organisations in a common effort to advance education’.

Plans say the building would be constructed on vacant land at Crooklands Brow, Ulverston Road.

The charity says it operates in Lancashire and Cumbria.