CONTROVERSIAL plans for a dog walking business in the open countryside just outside Wellington have been approved by district council planners.

A retrospective application was made by Josephine Francis-Trott, whose business It’s All About Dogs had operated without planning consent from her home Houndsville, Monument Road, for the past seven years.

Mrs Francis-Trott was originally given approval in 2010 only to use the site to exercise her dogs twice a day and to also allow pet owners to plant memorial trees.

But over the years she developed a dog walking business on the 3.5-acre site beside the M5 motorway with clients booking time slots online.

She added a pond, a field shelter, a dog shower and paths, and in her planning application also asked for permission for stock-proof fencing around the site and security lighting.

Wellington Without Parish Council objected to the application on the grounds it was not in keeping with the surrounding countryside and fencing and lighting were intrusive to neighbouring properties and could be seen from as far away as Wellington.

Parish clerk Nail Dalton said the council wanted a cap on use of the site during daylight hours only so there was no need for lighting, a restriction to one or two dog walkers at a time, and screening so fencing was not visible to neighbours.

Mr Dalton said there had been issues with cars parked on the road when events were held at the site and several accidents on nearby roads in the past two years, although not directly attributable to the site.

Neighbour Jonathan Fraser also objected to the plans because he said it could set ‘an untenable precedent for commercial investors to purchase low value agricultural land and convert it into a profitable enterprise that can be operated remotely via a website and keycode entry gate.’

Mr Fraser said the plans could see up to 252 people using the site over a seven-day week and 60,000 vehicle movements a year on single carriage roads where significant hedge and bank erosion had already been caused by traffic volumes.

County council planning liaison officer Jonny Elliott said although the development would double the number of visitors per hour to the site it was unlikely to cause any capacity or safety issues on the local roads.

More than two dozen letters of support for the proposals were submitted by customers, many with rescue dogs, who said it was a safe and secure facility where dogs could run freely without risk to others.

One described it as ‘a Godsend for people like us and dogs like ours’, while many customers, some of whom had lost loved ones and/or suffered medical conditions, talked of the therapeutic value of being able to relax with their dogs in a countryside setting.

The letters came from a wide area around Wellington and Taunton, including Bishop’s Hull, Bradford-on-Tone, Chilton Polden, Norton Fitzwarren, Cheddon Fitzpaine, Henlade, Hemyock, Uffculme, Cullompton, Over Stowey, Combe St Nicholas, Honiton, and Cheriton Bishop, near Exeter.

Mrs Francis-Trott’s agent Dominic Paterson said demand for the Houndsville facilities was increasing and it was clear that secure dog walking facilities were a new and growing business type all over the country.