A Hindu temple in Peterborough has won a reprieve in the High Court, which has paused the sale of its building to an Islamic mission organisation.
The Bharat Hindu Samaj, which has occupied the New England Complex since 1986, said the site is the only Hindu temple within about 35 miles and serves around 14,000 worshippers across several counties. The court’s interim order does not decide the case, but it gives the temple time to challenge the sale through judicial review.
The dispute began after Peterborough City Council, facing heavy debt, decided to sell the property. The temple says it had been negotiating to buy the building for years and later submitted its own offer, but the council instead took the site to the open market. The winning bid came from the United Kingdom Islamic Mission, which plans to convert the site into a mosque and community centre.
The temple’s legal team argues that the council’s decision was procedurally unfair and failed to properly consider equality duties owed to the Hindu community. The council says it acted lawfully and has promised to help the temple find an alternative home.
For the Hindu community, the issue is deeply emotional. Many of the families who built the temple were expelled from Uganda in 1972 under Idi Amin and rebuilt their lives in Britain. They now fear losing the one place that has served as both a shrine and a community centre for four decades.
