A HIGH Court judge has ruled that a Jewish school set up without planning permission in Golders Green should be closed down.

Beis Hamedrash Elyon school, in Golders Green Road, has remained open since 2002 despite never gaining approval from Barnet Council and being ordered to close by a Government planning inspector.

Council bosses had sought the injunction against the school after planning enforcement notices were constantly ignored and neighbours made regular complaints about disruption caused by the pupils.

Officers admitted they had pursued “a number of alternative avenues” to find a solution but court action was the only option to help ensure the school would not reopen in September.

Mr Justice Walker said on Friday that the school must close, but suspended the injunction until December 31 to give parents of pupils the chance to make alternative arrangements.

He said: “The pupils and their parents must recognise that they have only had the benefit of places at the school because it contravened planning law.

"If the school cannot find a location that complies with planning law, then in the circumstances of the present case it is just and proportionate to require parents to accept that the position will have to revert to what it was before the school was established."

The semi detached house, which is flanked on both sides by properties designated as synagogues, schools up to 50 Orthodox Jewish pupils aged between ten and 15 six days a week in classes from 7am until 11pm.

An Ofsted report in 2007 describes it as an independent school for boys which aims to prepare them to enter a junior yeshiva or religious school but said “progress made by pupils in secular subjects is inadequate” and branded the overall quality of education as “inadequate”.

Throughout the case, the school has argued there are no other options for Jewish pupils in the area, but despite that, neighbours have claimed a house is no place to teach children.

One woman who lives close to the school but did not want to be named, said: “It is terrible, it creates so much noise and dirt.

“Children are children and you can't tell them not to play or run around, but this is where people live, it is no place for a school.

“Hopefully now they will go somewhere new that is better for the children and they do not make it difficult for the people living near them.”

The school has found support however, with 82 letters being submitted in previous planning documents backing the facilities, including 29 from students and eight from rabbis in the community. Mr Justice Walker also highlighted that in April an application for planning permission was only defeated on a "narrow margin".

Another planning appeal is due to be heard by the Government planning inspector in September, and if successful, the injunction will not come into force as permission would have finally be granted for the building to be used as a school.

Noone from the school was available to comment.