Members of Woodside Park Synagogue have welcomed the news that an Eruv will be built in the area.

On Tuesday evening Barnet Borough Council’s Planning and Environment Committee granted trustees of the synagogue planning permission for the Eruv.

It will pass through the wards of Coppetts, Brunswick Park, East Barnet, East Finchley, Mill Hill, Oakleigh, Totteridge, West Finchley and Woodhouse.

Rabbi Hackenbroch said: “I am absolutely thrilled that we have received planning permission and am sure this will be of tremendous benefit in our community’s continued development.

“The Eruv is of huge importance and the community has welcomed the news.”

A spokeswoman for the synagogue explained that three groups will benefit the most from the Eruv.

Families with young children are currently often excluded from the synagogue’s Sabbath ceremonies because, without an Eruv, they are unable to carry necessities for their children, or to push buggies.

Once the Eruv is built they will no longer be cut off and will be able to visit the synagogue without a problem.

Elderly people and the disabled will also benefit.

These people have also been isolated from the synagogue on Saturdays, but the Eruv will enable them to use walking sticks and wheelchairs to get about meaning they will be included.

Finally, people who have to carry medication with them will benefit as they will be able to do so within the Eruv.

The spokeswoman said: “For these more vulnerable members of the community the Eruv will make being observant a much more inclusive thing.

“For the community going forward it will be fantastic. It will be a great benefit to us.”

Jewish Law prohibits Orthodox Jews from carrying on the Sabbath, however, carrying is permitted within the defined boundary of an Eruv, as is the use of pushchairs, wheelchairs.

The Eruv boundary is formed by utilizing continuous local features, such as fences or walls, alongside roads, railways or terraced buildings.

However, where this continuity is not possible due to breaks in the boundary, such as roads, then this breach must be integrated by the erection of a notional 'gateway'.

Such a gateway consists of posts or poles linked on top by a wire or cross bar crossing the highway.