12/05/2025
The importance of getting the message (and your facts!) right: A week or two back I was asked by ITV Granada News to appear on camera to dispel some myths about a new Islamic Faith Centre being built in Dalton-in-Furness.
Owing to some frankly shoddy journalistic research by a rival broadcast outlet, the story circulated on social media about a "mega mosque" in "the Lake District", and included some complete misinformation about how a "children's home" had been turned down on the same bit of land. A far right group then organised a protest at the construction site and had organised an online petition calling for the planning permission "to be revoked".
As a local councillor and former journalist, I was happy to set the record straight - the application was approved more than two years ago by a council that no longer exists, it is not for a mosque (never mind a "mega" mosque, whatever one of those is), the site is not in the Lake District, locals are not all against it, there was never an application for a children's home turned down on the same site, there is no mechanism for "revoking" planning permission, and the far right group stirring up tensions even planned to deliver its petition of signatures to a council that no longer exists, albeit still not the one that passed the original plans!
I am very pleased that Elaine Willcox took the time to come to Dalton to help debunk this misinformation, and found here in Furness a wonderful array of folk all speaking in support of the right of people of the Islamic faith to have a place to meet, break bread and pray, without having to make a near-100-mile round-trip to Lancaster.
https://www.itv.com/news/granada/2025-04-08/misinformation-about-new-mosque-by-far-right-groups-used-to-whip-up-tension
