Councillors will discuss and vote on the development application at Cessnock City Council’s meeting on Wednesday night.

Newcastle Muslim Association lodged the application earlier this year, with what it described as a “softened” design, compared with what was publicly released last year. Original plans were amended in response to concerns from neighbouring residents and others in the community.

Under the new design, the development, which will also include a separate building for a funeral home, has been moved further back off the road and includes more landscaping, with the main building having a more “softened” design.

In a report to Wednesday’s meeting, council planners recommended the development be approved.

The report noted that 600 individual submissions were received. Of those 447 were in objection to the proposal and 163 were in support. 

Three separate petitions were also submitted to council during the exhibition period. All of the petitions objected to the proposal. The combined total of two of the written petitions comprised 2546 signatures. The third petition was an electronic petition signed by 1278 people.

Despite significant public objection, planners said the proposal demonstrated compliance with all key planning considerations.

The report noted the issues raised during the public exhibition period had been addressed, and it was considered that the grounds for objection did not justify refusal of the application.

“Overall, it is considered that the proposed development complies with the relevant planning provisions and based on the assessment, it is recommended that the development application be approved subject to conditions of consent,” planners said.

The report said the place of public worship would be used for religious worship seven days per week. There are five regular prayers that occur daily at the site. The times of the worship period vary according to sunrise and sunset.

Last October, the association revealed plans to build a mosque in the rural-urban area to help accommodate the growing number of worshippers who attended its Wallsend mosque. 

Prayers will begin at 4:15am in summer and 5am in winter and continue at intervals during the day until about 9:30pm. The likely times of the daily prayer services are:

The association expects about five people to attend the daily prayers, except on Friday at noon – which is the most culturally significant service, when about 200 people could attend.