- Bnois Jerusalem School used home without planning permission for 5 years
- Neighbours in Stamford Hill, north London, complained about noise
- Owner of house - Amhurst Park Holdings Limited - was fined £6,000
A Jewish faith school flouted planning rules by using a terraced house as a 'cramped' classroom for 120 students, a court heard today.
Bnois Jerusalem Girls' School in north London sparked noise complaints from neighbours after using the property for five years after running out of room next door.
The three-storey house in Amhurst Park, Stamford Hill, was only licensed for use as a private residence.
But from 2008 the school for Orthodox Jews carried on lessons in cramped and inappropriate conditions after a business offered to them rent free, Snaresbrook Crown Court heard.
Row: Bnois Jerusalem Girls School was using the three-storey house on the left
for five years without planning permission after it ran out of room in its schoolhouse on the right
The firm that owns the building - Amhurst Park Holdings Limited - was fined £6,000 after bosses admitted breaches of planning notices served by Hackney Council in 2011.
The company had allowed the school to use the property rent-free.
Judge Stephen Dawson QC said: 'The school is one that teaches young Orthodox Jewish girls and it is associated with this complaint.
'It has more pupils than it can hold and it has spilled over into the house next door.
'The upper two floors do not have planning permission to be a school and the complaints go back a long way to 2006.
'To be fair to the defendants, the enforcement notice does only go back to 2011 while informal negotiations went on between the council and Amhurst Park Holdings.
'These premises have a long history but it looks as if a person named Hershal Grumhut came from Vienna many years ago and developed the school and acquired more property in order to help with the development of the community.
'They are not complying with the rules however and though planning can be a nuisance if we did not have planning rules we would have mayhem.
'Whatever the merits of any planning situation are we should all stick to the rules.
'I am told it is going to stop and though I can see the reason for breaching the enforcement notice all schools must make compromises.
'I am sympathetic to the fact this is a school and not profiteering going on here.'
Case: Bnois Jerusalem Girls School sparked noise complaints from neighbours
after using a terraced house to educate up to 120 students, Snaresbrook Crown Court, pictured, heard
In addition to the financial penalty, Amhurst Park Holdings will have £2,725 in court costs.
The voluntary-aided school caters for girls between the ages of 3-16 and caters to up to 628 pupils.
Ellis Sareen, prosecuting, said: 'At one time the first floor was used as a surgery and so was justifiably used as a school as they have permission for that.
'As for the upper two floors they have only ever had permission to be used as residences.
'There have been complaints since 2006 and when council officers visited they looked at it from the outside and saw it was being used and upon entering the premises, saw it was being used as a school.
'An application for planning permission was sought after but was defective and was never considered on its merits.
'The decision was made on August 5, 2011, for an enforcement notice requiring the defendant company to cease the use of floors one and two and the rear garden as a school.
'An appeal to planning inspectors was lodged saying that they had been using it for ten years and that the council was wrong not to grant them planning permission.
'Both appeals failed.
'The premises was so cramped it caused more noise than would be usual and on July 12, 2012, a visit from the council found nothing had changed.'
Amhurst Park Holdings Ltd director Akiva Grumhut pleaded guilty on behalf of the company to three counts of failing to comply with an enforcement notice.
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