A mosque will be allowed to accommodate nearly 100 more worshippers despite warnings that parking in the area is already a “nightmare” on Friday afternoons.

Milton Keynes City Council has approved plans to expand Jamee Masjid in Duncombe Street, Bletchley, increasing its prayer-hall capacity from 187 to 281 worshippers.

The scheme will absorb a neighbouring house and add rear extensions and a mortuary, despite the mosque having no allocated parking of its own.

Council standards indicate that the expanded building would require 38 spaces, nine more than the 29 required for the existing mosque.

Parking fears dominated councillors’ debate over the plans, with one warning that the area becomes a “nightmare on a Friday afternoon”.

Cllr Adrian Burton said worshippers did not use the car park at the former Sainsbury’s site because they had to pay.

He said: “Speaking to some of the residents in Bletchley, that particular area becomes a nightmare on a Friday afternoon.

“The people who attend the worship sessions do not use the old parking lot from Sainsbury’s because it requires payment.”

Cllr Burton asked whether the mosque could subsidise parking to help ease the problem.

But other councillors stressed that the existing parking shortfall could not be blamed entirely on the application, which would increase the council’s parking requirement by nine spaces.

Cllr George Humphrey Thomas said he was “definitely nervous” about parking and empathised with the concerns raised.

However, he said the mosque already had a significant parking shortfall and argued that the application could not be blamed for the entire requirement of 38 spaces.

Cllr Stephen Brown said parking appeared to be the only issue causing significant concern across the committee.

The development will incorporate number 46 Duncombe Street, currently classed as a home, into the existing mosque at numbers 48 to 52.

Existing rear extensions and an outbuilding will be demolished to make way for new single and first-floor extensions.

Internal alterations will enlarge the prayer hall, while a kitchen, toilets and an external emergency staircase will also be provided.

A separate outbuilding in the rear garden will be used as a mortuary.

One resident formally objected to the application, warning that traffic and parking problems had worsened over several decades.

Catherine Burningham told the council: “Traffic flow and parking have always been an issue, but it has got steadily worse in the past 50 years.

“Currently there is no effective control of the speed limit or parking. Unless this can be managed, I will oppose the application.”

Bletchley and Fenny Stratford Town Council did not object, provided a travel plan was required and the mortuary was moved away from the railway boundary in line with Network Rail’s request.

The proposed mortuary building was subsequently repositioned at least three metres from the railway boundary to address Network Rail’s concerns.

Officers concluded that expanding the place of worship would deliver social and environmental benefits that outweighed the loss of the property from the city’s housing stock.