Eruv plans will help 'disadvantaged' Jews in Stockport

Greater Manchester is home to about 24,000 Jews, the largest population outside London

Plans to create a symbolic religious area for orthodox Jews have been approved in part of Greater Manchester.

An eruv is a zone where observant Jews are permitted to carry or push objects on the Sabbath by extending the home boundaries into a public space.

Poles and arches connected by clear nylon wire will be installed at 32 sites in Gatley and Cheadle in Stockport to complete the border.

Councillor Suzanne Wyatt said the move is "about supporting a community".

Under Jewish law, orthodox Jews are not allowed to carry or push certain items outside of their homes on the Sabbath, including keys or medicine, or pushing wheelchairs or prams.

Cllr Wyatt told the Local Democracy Reporter Service: "This particular community, because of its religious strictures actually disadvantages some of its members.

"This is an attempt to give back to those members some of the advantages that the rest of us have, so they can walk around and carry things and push things on their Sabbath."

The Cheadle and Gatley Eruv Committee requested the installation of new street furniture to "fill the gaps" across some roads and footpaths.

Jewish community spokesman Neil Sugarman said elderly and disabled Jews can feel like "a prisoner in their own homes" and that approving the plans would permit "social inclusion".

Stockport Council planning committee heard existing walls and fences, already made up the majority of the eruv boundary.

Councillor Wendy Meikle said she was concerned the move would be "divisive, increase anti-semitism and offend other religious groups".

She told the committee: "I just see them as like a demarcation of a territory, and I'm really uncomfortable with it.

"I admit I don't know enough about it and before I read the report I had never heard of them before, but those are my concerns."

The committee voted for the application by nine votes to two, with one abstention.

Greater Manchester is already home to the "UK's largest eruv" which began in 2014.

The Manchester Community Eruv has a perimeter of more than 13 miles and covers parts of Prestwich, Crumpsall and Higher Broughton.