A FORMER five-bedroom home has become a UK centre for a devout group of Buddhists from Sri Lanka... despite not yet having planning permission.

Monks from the Mahamevnawa International Meditation Centre, developed in the grounds of the house in Hardings Elms Road, Crays Hill, in early 2012, have submitted their latest retrospective planning application.

Three previous applications submitted by the group were either withdrawn or remain undetermined by Basildon Council.

The organisation has expanded and bought a neighbouring property and is now looking to increase the size of the site with five meditation huts in the grounds.

After buying the neighbouring bungalow to the site they now called Dhamma Land for £250,000, the group has been working behind the scenes with the council to amend its plans.

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Gathering: Around 11 people have been known to meet in the house adourned with Buddah statues 

The main changes in the new application are moving the proposed access from narrow Oak Road to a route directly onto Hardings Elms Road. There would also be a lower 1.5m high front fence. The group wants 20 parking spaces in and around the site, agreement for one major meeting a month and five meditation huts in the grounds. Videos of events at the temple on Youtube show at least 100 people packed into the main building.

David McPherson, a Ramsden Crays parish councillor, said: “I have no objections to their religion, but it is the effect on people in the area.

They can’t have planning changes going on unchecked. They are seeking permission for one gathering a month on a Sunday, but according to the website there is one a week, so we will be raising that.

“They want parking for 20 cars, so with four or five people per car that could be 100 people visiting from outside the area.”

The parish council has previously objected to the earlier applications, but then the council went on to make no decision.

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Image: How meditation huts would look

A Basildon Council spokesman said: “The applications would normally be decided within eight weeks of submission but have, with the full agreement of the applicants, been extended to allow their unique set of circumstances and complexities to be fully considered.

“We anticipate decisions on these particular applications will be made by mid-October.”

The Mahamevnawa International Meditation Centre is a devout Sri Lankan branch of Buddhism, led by monk Kiribathgoda Gnanananda Thero.

It has 60 centres worldwide, 44 in Sri Lanka and four bases in the UK at Surrey, Hounslow, Watford, with Crays Hill now the headquarters.

The charity was registered with the Charity Commission in the UK in 2009.

Accounts show its assets in Crays Hill total around £1million and it carried forward funds of £345,000 in 2012.