Stoke Newington residents are up in arms that Hackney Council has given the go-ahead to a Jewish school, whose noisy playground they claim is wrecking their lives.

Permission has been given for 120 pupils at the school in Ravensdale Road to use the garden in shifts of 40 children for up to three hours a day.

Wiseheights Ltd, a charity which financially supports jewish education projects, applied to continue using number 67 as a primary school, whilst expanding into number 65.

But opponents at Thursday’s planning committee meeting in Hackney Town Hall said this implied the school had been there many years.

“This is absolutely not true, there was a school there until 2002 which closed down because of boys’ delinquent behaviour,” said a disgruntled resident.

“When planning permission was granted in 1997 it was the express condition that the rear garden was not to be used as a playground, to protect amenities for which we are very grateful,” he added.

“We who are living next to it are not aware of anyone using it as playground until last year when we immediately complained to the council - smack in the middle of our quiet residential area, the playground noise is a big problem for us.

“This is affecting our health, wrecking our lives, especially for those who work at night and rest in the day - how would you like to live next door to a noisy business like this with a lot of kids screaming and shouting, where your garden is no longer a place of retreat?”

The plans go against the Hackney Local Development Framework Core Strategy, whereby the loss of residential accommodation is avoided, unless plans are in place for a replacement.

But council planning officers decided the need for a single sex school in line with the Jewish cultural requirement outweighed the loss of the residential accommodation in this instance, stating there are no other Jewish school for girls on Ravensdale Road and the surrounding streets.

Other Jewish girls’ primary schools are situated in Olinda Road, Rookwood Road, Leabourne Road, Moundfield Road and Leadale Road.