As South Manchester’s community continues on its suburban sprawl, Sephardi congregation Shaare Hayim is having a 200-seat satellite synagogue complex constructed in Hale.

The facility will cater for the many among the synagogue’s 589 members who have moved away from its Didsbury base. It will incorporate a hall, minister’s accommodation and classrooms.

Planning permission was received a few weeks ago after a five-year preparatory process during which two adjacent plots of land were purchased.

Shaare Hayim was formed 10 years ago by the merger of two Sephardi congregations, Shaare Rahamim and Shaare Sedek, with premises a few hundred metres apart.

The Shaare Sedek building will be sold off to part-fund the project. The larger Shaare Rahamim will remain open for congregants who live locally.

Congregation chairman Anthony Sultan says construction is due to start later this year.