British Hindus in Cambridgeshire have lost their bid to establish the county’s first Hindu place of worship after a local council awarded a parcel of faith-designated land to a church-led organisation in Northstowe instead of a Hindu charity.
South Cambridgeshire District Council has granted a 999-year lease on 0.25 hectares of land to the Northstowe Church Network (NCN), which will pay only a peppercorn rent. The decision followed a competitive bidding process in which Hindu Samaj Northstowe (HSN), a charity formed by local residents, also submitted a proposal, reported The Times of India.
HSN had planned to develop an interfaith and wellbeing centre alongside a Hindu temple. However, council officers evaluating the applications awarded the Hindu group's proposal a score of 65%, while NCN's bid received 81%, resulting in the land being allocated to the church-led organisation.
NCN's proposal includes Northstowe Muslims as an anchor tenant, with plans for a dedicated Islamic prayer room and education centre. While Cambridgeshire already has several churches and mosques, the county does not have a single Hindu temple.
As a result, Hindu worshippers often travel as far as Birmingham or Wembley, journeys of around two hours, to attend religious services. Community members also say temporary venues cannot be hired overnight, making it difficult to observe festivals such as Ganapati.
The lack of a permanent worship space has created practical challenges for the community. Deities are frequently transported in carrier bags and stored in garages between events, with some idols reportedly being damaged as they are moved from one venue to another.
HSN Chair Aparna Nigam-Saxena said the organisation was "very disappointed" with the outcome and questioned the transparency and robustness of the assessment process.
She said the charity was considering whether to appeal the decision. According to Nigam-Saxena, HSN's proposal lost marks for several reasons, including a lack of a "financial track record", although she said the group had not realised this would be a significant factor in the evaluation.
"They should have given us guidelines if they wanted to see prepared quotes from our architect," she said.
The decision has left around 150 Hindu families living in Northstowe disappointed. Eyva, a 16-year-old resident, said she has never been able to celebrate Shivratri overnight or take part in "havans".
"I often see my cousins in India celebrating something and I wish I could celebrate in the same way but I can't. My generation here is being lost as we are being left completely separate from our roots, culture and heritage," she said.
Abhishek Srivastava, originally from Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh, said he sometimes feels he made a mistake moving to the UK because his children, aged 9 and 12, have not been able to participate fully in Hindu festivals.
Jawad Nawash, chair of Northstowe Muslims, said the town's more than 200 Muslims also needed a permanent place of worship because community venues do not remain open long enough to accommodate the five daily prayers. He said this was why the group sought to become an anchor tenant in the proposed development.
An NCN spokesperson said locally based community and faith groups would be able to hire the site's facilities "where activities fit the scale, setting and residential context of the site."
Defending the process, Councillor Dr Lisa Redrup said all applications were assessed against a clearly defined set of criteria that had been made available to every bidder. She added that applicants were expected to explain the need for their projects as well as considerations relating to specific faith practices.
