Ku-ring-gai Council takes on prominent Jewish community over St Ives eruv

A PROMINENT Jewish community is embroiled in a battle with council over a religious boundary.

The “eruv” was erected in April 2015 in St Ives, after Ku-ring-gai Council had already knocked back a development application for it in 2010.

The decision was upheld two years later when the Court of Appeal found, although the application had merit, it was outside the court’s power.

Yet the eruv, a spiritual area enclosed by wires within which Orthodox Jews can carry or push objects such as prams or wheelchairs on the Sabbath and other holy days, appears to have gone under the radar since it was erected, attached to Ausgrid Power poles — about 14 months ago.

Ku-ring-gai Council has now sought legal advice on removing the boundary after it said it had received “a significant number of objections” from residents.

Confidential council documents said the objections came from residents “directly affected” by the wire boundary at the front of their property or who were “concerned with the amenity of their local area”.

Read the report by Jessica Rapana of the North Shore Times in the Daily Telegraph.