As Mr Kaye ('Not an imposition', Times Letters, November 1) lives outside the proposed eruv area, it is easy for him to say that the eruv would not inflict hardship on eruv non-believers.

He seems unaware that some people living on the eruv boundary would have to suffer a pole directly outside their window, while many others would have to live with the knowledge that their homes have been 'hijacked' for the boundary, without their consent, and in most cases against their wishes.

In addition, everyone entering or leaving the eruv area would be compelled to pass through one of the eruv-believers 'gateways', which many people with other beliefs find offensive.

Not only would the poles be an imposition, but it is possible that their positioning to cause compulsory passage through the 'gateways' would be in breach of the Human Rights Act.

In view of this possibility, further work on the eruv should be suspended by Barnet Council unless and until it can assure its taxpayers that it has obtained legal advice which excludes the likelihood of an infringement of the Act.

Elizabeth Segall

Eruv BoundaryOpponents' Committee Cricklewood

November 7, 2001 20:39