The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
Noise monitoring is to take place at a Whaplode dog kennel after an application came before planners last week.
Mundicao Kennels in Dowsdale Bank had applied for permanent permission for its canine accommodation and dog training service after a 12-month trial.
But last week South Holland District Council’s Planning Committee voted to pass another year long trial after a councillor claimed complaints had been received about the noise from barking dogs and the way the business was being run.
Coun Paul Redgate told the meeting: “This is quite a contentious site.
“I know there’s regular complaints about this business and the way it’s operating.
“You’re not seeing the properties affected (on the images presented to the meeting).
“There’s many homes along the road to the rear of the ground. There’s no sound preventative messages from the back of the property going towards the residents.
“They’re not really operating the set opening hours anyway and we don’t seem to be enforcing them, which is a concern.
“To lift the conditions because they’re doing it anyway shouldn’t be a valid reason.
“They weren’t operating the businesses during COVID and used that to say they’d had no complaints. As soon as the business was open the complaints came in.”
The conditions at centre are for operations between 9am to 5pm Monday to Saturday with no dog training to occur on a Sunday or Bank Holidays.
Coun Bryan Alcock, said: “I don’t think any of us want to deny the ability for someone to earn their living in something they’re obviously interested in, but never the less they need to avoid the disturbance of their neighbours.
“I hope we can use sound monitoring equipment in an intelligent way so over a period of time we do actually know what the situation is.”
The meeting heard machine noise monitoring had not been carried out before and that the only evidence that had been submitted was from written diary entries.
Coun Roger Gambba-Jones, added: “If a complainant is aggrieved they do have to meet us half way by agreeing to have monitoring equipment in their property.”
“I’m aware from previous experience there’s people who complain bitterly about such issues, then when its requested to have equipment installed and operated over a lengthy period, it’s not wanted for whatever reason.”
