Westminster Council has approved eruv plans for St John’s Wood despite claims the religious boundary would be socially divisive.
Councillor Robert Davis, chairman of the four-person planning committee which voted three-to-one in favour of the eruv on Tuesday, rejected arguments that it could increase local tensions.
“There are a number of eruvs throughout the country [and] there is absolutely no evidence I have found that there have been social cohesion problems in these areas,” he said.
The project will involve the erection of 51 black poles up to five and a half metres high in 26 locations to help mark the boundaries of the eruv, which will encompass St John's Wood United Synagogue and Lauderdale Road, the main congregation of the S and P Sephardi Community, in Maida Vale.
