PLANS to rebuild a synagogue in Radlett have gone full circle after a year of private meetings ended with the application being sent back to a council planning committee.

Controversy caused by a lack of parking spaces in the Radlett United Synagogue proposal led a Hertsmere Borough Council committee to organise the meetings after discussing the application in January this year.

As previously reported in the Watford Observer, the press and public were banned from attending these meetings in order to create a “frank and forthright environment and allow people to speak openly”.

After the final meeting on Monday, chairman of the committee, Hertsmere Borough Councillor Seamus Quilty, said the discussions had ended positively and that a final decision on the application would be discussed in January 2009.

He said: “I get the feeling that the meeting went well. Even though there have been delays, I feel there was a lot of good communication between residents and the developers.”

He said proposals by Mike Jarrett, the district manager for Hertfordshire Highways, to place parking restrictions around the site, in Watling Street, were supported by both synagogue members and a selected panel of residents and that they could be the subject of a public consultation regardless of the synagogue being built.

Despite these positive comments, David Kohler, vice chairman of the synagogue, refused to speak to the Watford Observer, maintaining that the meeting’s discussions remain secret and abruptly hanging up the telephone.