Stamford Hill - Hackney planning row exposes faultlines in orthodox Jewish area

Isaac Liebowitz

An incendiary row involving the UK's largest community of ultra-orthodox Jews has been sparked by a government drive to devolve planning laws. Haredi Jews are facing off against other residents of Stamford Hill in London in a battle for control of planning rights that has boiled over into accusations of antisemitism and "social cleansing".

The Stamford Hill Neighbourhood Forum, whose leadership includes ultra-orthodox Jews as well as members of the non-Jewish community, is bidding for powers to approve major extensions to lofts and build over gardens to house a rapidly growing population using the government's "big society" policy of handing planning control to local communities. Dozens of large extensions to provide space for families as well as religious schools have already been built on rooftops and over gardens which are forbidden under current local planning regulations.

The devout Haredim have now seized the Conservatives' localism initiative to try to accommodate a population that they say is set to double over the next two decades. Meanwhile, a rival group of residents, led by secular academics and trades unionists, have launched a parallel bid for power over the same streets to "prevent any one group from imposing its will". Rabbi Abraham Pinter, a community leader who wants to broker a peace, said that the dispute appears to be between "the yuppies and us".

More than 330 local areas across England are in the process of applying for similar powers to permit development without the need for planning applications to the local council. The dispute in Stamford Hill comes as residents of rural Upper Eden in Cumbria this week became the first group to hold a referendum on the matter, voting overwhelmingly to adopt a neighbourhood plan.

The devolved rights demand that planning policies have regard for national rules and be in "general conformity" with local strategic plans, but communities secretary Eric Pickles has made clear that he wants "direct democracy and less bureaucracy".   In Stamford Hill, home to an estimated 20,000 orthodox Jews, attempts to bring the rival sides together have so far failed. Community leaders have warned that relations are "too hot" for the new neighbourhood planning system to do anything other than bring latent tensions to the surface.

Hackney Planning Watch, which opposes the Stamford Hill Neighbourhood Forum, has posted a flyer warning "Act now! Your neighbourhood is in danger!" It asks: "Want your neighbour to extend their home to cover the whole of their back garden? Want to wake up and find a school has moved in next door?"

A Stamford Hill Neighbourhood Forum leaflet accused Hackney Planning Watch of double standards, showing a loft extension built in the street where some of its leaders live. It asked: "Is it one rule for themselves and one rule for the ethnic communities?"  

"The community is growing with at least 1,000 babies every year, which means the majority will grow up with the disadvantage of overcrowding, it has a psychological impact and people don't have anywhere to put their things or even lie down," said Benzion Papier, 27, a Conservative ward councillor and member of the Stamford Hill Neighbourhood Forum. "It is the [Hackney] mayor, Jules Pipe, who is responsible for this social cleansing. We don't need the south [the location of the town hall] to decide on the north. That is the whole idea of localism."

Pipe, whose council must approve any planning forum, strongly denied the allegation, saying that it was "an unacceptable leap to claim the planning system not allowing people to build whatever they want is to drive people out".

"There would be a huge question mark over any forum that wasn't inclusive," he said. "There is always tension between those who want to see something built and those who don't, but the situation is made more divisive by this legislation."

Isaac Liebowitz, a father of nine and secretary of the bid for a planning forum who was jailed for ballot fraud in 2001, estimated the average family size in his community was eight children and said he sees "constant conflict" over extensions. He believes the opposition to extensions is part of a more sinister threat aimed at encouraging the fast-growing community to find other places to live.   "Is a place like Stamford Hill too hot for a process like this?" asked Chaya Spitz, chief executive of Interlink, an orthodox Jewish voluntary action charity. "From a community planning point of view it has opened old wounds. We are seeing how difficult it can get when this issue is put in the hands of the community."

Jane Holgate, a leader of Hackney Planning Watch, said that one councillor had branded her "antisemitic" just because she had spoken about the neighbourhood forum proposal.

"When people see it is dominated by a particular group, whether it is Conservatives or members of the Haredi community, it will not be seen as representative of the whole community," she said. "Functions like planning should remain with the council, not an unelected and unaccountable body like a neighbourhood forum."

John Page, a fellow HPW leader, added: "The government thought it was a way to stimulate development in areas like greenbelt where development is restricted. I am not sure they had in mind how you define community in a multi-ethnic area. You can understand how this sort of approach would work in a country village, but here you have real divisions which I can only see leading to conflict."

Nick Boles, the planning minister, said the new rights for local people to shape their environment would not be granted if forums divided communities.

"These powers will ensure that all voices within a community are heard," he said. "Only decisions with a broad base of support will get though, giving local people an even stronger incentive to work as a team and achieve better results for their neighbourhoods."

In some areas, such as the Somali area of Spring Boroughs in Northampton, the process of drawing up a neighbourhood plan has brought immigrant and indigenous communities together for the first time, said John Romanski, senior neighbourhood planning adviser at the Royal Town Planning Institute.

"The more densely populated and the more communities there are within communities [conflict] could be a problem," he said. "In Northampton they are doing it right and bringing the consultation out to the whole community.

"There have been groups of Somali women sitting and chatting with groups of white British women for the first time. They may never get a neighbourhood forum, but it is already having a positive effect on community cohesion."

Hackney council will decide whether to designate either planning forum in September. The consultation for the Hackney Planning Watch proposal starts on Monday.

 

 

 

 

 

Guardian