Revised eruv plans for Bushey passed by Hertsmere Borough Council have attracted local condemnation.

Although the eruv was green-lighted in 2013, amendments for two extra pole sites were passed unanimously at a council meeting a fortnight ago.

But the Bushey Residents Group has now amassed 450 signatures for an anti-eruv petition.

After the latest council decision, group spokesperson Gay Butler wrote to the Watford Observer, describing Bushey United Synagogue - the driving force behind the project - as manipulative and misleading.

The retired teacher added: "The true reason for the eruv [is] to socially engineer and substantially grow the Jewish community, thereby identifying Bushey, like Golders Green, as a Jewish area.

"This is an appalling abuse of the ordinary law abiding residents of historic Bushey. Our secular peaceful community has no history of the religious dogma now to be imposed upon us. Jewish law is greatly incompatible with true democratic hard fought for freedom and equality. There is now a thirst in Bushey to redress the powerful Jewish lobby in Hertsmere Borough Council."

Ridiculing her comments, a US spokesman expressed certainty that objections would fade away on discovery that "there will be no effect on those people who do not wish to participate".

Opposing an eruv was "like saying a supermarket which stocks 'kosher for Pesach' food shouldn't do so. These are services to the Jewish community. We're confident that the eruv in Bushey will soon be built to the benefit of the Jews who reside there."

The Watford Observer will be publishing a letter from the council in response to the residents group's correspondence.