Hackney resident Isaac Liebowitz, who says Haredi Jews need larger houses
to accomodate their families.
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 inLondon 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.
No comments:
Post a Comment