It took chairman of Worldham Parish Council Terry Blake more than an hour-and-a-half to drive from Alton to Kingsley, and the clerk Robin Twining said that he had received complaints from residents unable to get out of their drives or onto village roads.
Mr Twining also admitted that he had been worried, in view of recent Islamist-extremist atrocities abroad, that security at the event might, this year, have to be heightened to protect the worshippers at the convention. At the event, Ahmadiyya Muslims raised the Union Flag and formed a human chain as they re-affirmed their rejection of violence and extremism.
The community’s worldwide caliph led the thousands gathered in a vow of peace and obedience at Hadeeqatul Mahdi (Oaklands Farm) on the final day of the three-day convention.
In the 50th year of the event, His Holiness Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad spoke to delegates during a Pledge of Allegiance ceremony, reaffirming their loyalty to their country of residence.
The Jalsa Salana of the Ahmadiyya Muslims marks more than 100 years of the community in Britain and tells the story of a people in exile, persecuted in other countries, particularly Pakistan. And in this country, last Tuesday a 32-year-old Sunni Muslim man was jailed for life for the murder of a 40-year-old Ahmadi shopkeeper in Glasgow in March.
On the traffic issue, Mr Twining said: “From 10am to 11am traffic was running smoothly but at noon it was at a standstill and I gather the side roads were also blocked. I know our chairman took more than an hour to get from Alton to Kingsley.”
He felt the traffic chaos was caused “by everyone trying to get to the site in time for the raising of the flag at the start of the convention”, and although Ahmadiyya Muslims stewards were at the gates there were none further up the road to help keep the traffic moving.
There was a park-and-ride service to the site from the Country Market, near Kingsley, but this did not seem to ease the problem.
Mr Twining said he felt villagers had not been given all the traffic-control measures they had been promised.
“This is something that will be top of our list as a priority to be discussed with the Ahmadiyya leaders when we have our next liaison meeting with them,” he said.
Things went more smoothly when the convention ended on Sunday “as people left at different times,” the parish council clerk said.
But it is understood that some vehicles were held up on Sunday on their way to the White Dove Collectors Show at Kingsley Sports Ground in Sickles Lane.
This year marked the 11th year that Jalsa Salana has been held in East Worldham. Before this, the community gathered in Tilford, Surrey, at their country estate called Islamabad.
This year’s Jalsa Salana, at the 210-acre Hadeeqatul Mahdi, in East Worldham, attracted a higher-than-normal number of members of the Ahmadiyya community because it was the event’s golden-jubilee year, which got national media attention.
And despite the traffic problems, Mr Twining said he was glad to report the convention, as always, was very peaceful and there had been no incidents.
Local resident Steve Apsee also protested about Friday’s midday traffic chaos and told the Herald: “This year’s traffic arrangements for Jalsa Salana have proven woefully inadequate with poor traffic planning leading to gridlock for most of the day, in Kingsley and surrounding areas, on day one of the three-day event as more than 30,000 travellers make their way to Oaklands Farm.
“Having listened to feedback and improved traffic management over the past couple of years, with remote parking at Country Market and the busing in of the attendees for the final few miles, this year Jalsa has gone back to the bad old days of miles-long queues of traffic by implementing onsite parking.
“On a typically hot August day the rural Hampshire roads have ended up gridlocked, with cars as far as the eye can see, full of attendees, many of whom who have already travelled for many hours, stuck with their families in hot cars and villagers in effect trapped in their homes,” Mr Apsee said.
“Poor planning and disregard of the lessons learnt from the past is not just disappointing, it goes counter to the ethos of Jalsa by causing avoidable suffering for both its attendees and the local community.”
Ahmadiyya spokesman Basharat Nazir, when told about the complaints from residents over the Jalsa traffic chaos, said: “The gates on the B3004 were well managed, considering that 38,000 were attending.
“However, there were three issues beyond our control that we were aware of, such as, on Sunday, due to accidents on M25 and A3, there was congestion spilling over onto the surrounds of the convention.
“Also, cars approaching the Country Market park and ride were affected by a temporary timer-light signal in front of a construction site. That caused a three-mile queue.
“We called the police and once they removed the signal, the queues cleared within 30 minutes. This had been a 60 to 90-minutes-long problem.
“On Saturday, there were no problems we were aware of, but on Friday there were delays due to a car breakdown on the road from Alton, which persisted for about an hour. As soon as we became aware (of this), we provided assistance and cleared the car from there.”