How to win friends for your eruv proposal

IT’S NOT an eruv application, it’s a planning application, so you need to get a consultant and, most importantly, communicate with your stakeholders. Identify who they are — the local leaders, neighbours, everyone involved in the area — and draw up messages for different target audiences.

Run a proper community consultation and write to everyone, explain- ing yourself in the same way you would explain to your neighbours why the extension you’re about to build isn’t going to affect their lives.

Public meetings always prompt the same questions that have been asked since the Barnet eruv was established in the 1990s. If you give the right answers to these people — most of whom won’t be antisemitic and just don’t want a pole in front of their houses — you can then start communicating with councillors.

It’s all about lobbying and planning. So when the planning officer presents the case, members of the committee know the details because they’ve already been briefed. Poor communication is the main reason why eruv applications to fail.

The last thing you want is a failed application. If it’s not going well, delay the application until you’ve dealt with the significant objections.

A failed application has wider ramifications. Opponents in your area or another area can use that failed application as a precedent. There can be a lasting effect on wider community relations if it is not handled correctly. Shimon Cohen is chairman of the PR Office and has been involved in a number of successful eruv applications