THE Ahmadiyya Muslim Association (AMA) has ceased plans to permanently divert footpath 27, which runs through Oaklands Farm, East Worldham, and over its Jalsa Salana convention site. A meeting to discuss next year's Jalsa Salana event saw a large crowd gather at East Worldham Village Hall last Thursday. The AMA and a panel of East Hampshire district council experts were present to explain improvements being made to the organisation of the event and issues surrounding planning permission. Due to the unpopularity of the suggestion to permanently reroute the footpath the association said at the meeting that it would halt its plans. The meeting moved on to a discussion on transport, planning and noise. This was introduced by district council officer, Tom Horwood. Mr Horwood said that the AMA would now take the disastrous weather conditions of 2007 as its benchmark and not see it as unlucky. He said that the AMA was working on a new transport plan which would be submitted formally in January. Vice-president of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association and co-ordinator of the Jalsa Salana event, Akram Ahmedi, asked for the community's 'forgiveness' for the fiasco regarding traffic in 2007. He said: "We are very sorry and we don't want a repeat. We take it very seriously and have therefore been making a transport policy for next year and the years to come." Mr Ahmedi also said that there would be no more planning developments on the site that would require planning permission, except those that related to agriculture. He mentioned that they had had problems with some of their contractors with noisy work being conducted out of normal builders hours, and that they had warned the contractors that if there was any repeat that they would be forcibly removed from the site. Following the meeting, Mr Ahmedi said: "I think the meeting went well, and was very constructive. We believed that the community wanted us to apply for a permanent change to the footpath, and we have learnt that is not the case. "We want to co-operate with the community, and with that regards we will continue to apply for temporary closure in the future. "In terms of traffic congestion, we now have a robust traffic plan and we are confident we can make it work". The new traffic plan includes limiting the number of vehicles on the site to between 2,500 and 3,000, using the Tilford site for excess parking and using specially organised buses to travel between sites. The association is currently in contact with South West Trains and is organising facilities for parking at Wimbledon and Morden where most of its members live.
