A PLANNING application to formalise the use of a field in St Martin as a dog daycare centre has been refused.
The Planning Committee – a group of politicians who decide on larger and more contentious applications – recently rejected a bid from the Barkley Club to knock down an existing equine office, store, tack room and five stables, and build a dog daycare facility there.
That application generated more than 100 public comments, with 80 people expressing support and 19 speaking against it.
The business also wanted to subdivide the field – in Rue des Buttes, which is south of the Catholic church. This application, which was made in September, followed another application for a larger building which the committee refused in April.
The daycare business initially appealed that rejection, but later withdrew its objection and submitted a fresh application.
In making its unanimous decision, the committee said that when the field had originally been approved for “equine livery” in 2016, it had been on the condition that it would be restored to agricultural use should the equine use end.
It concluded that the loss of 15 vergées of good agricultural land was “unacceptable”.
In refusing the application, the committee followed the recommendation of the planning officer assigned to the case.
The field has been used as a dog daycare business since August 2022 and has operated since then without the necessary planning permission, prompting the involvement of the Regulation Department at Infrastructure and Environment, which issued an enforcement notice in September this year.
That notice gave the owner one month to stop using the land as a canine care and training facility.
The applicant has subsequently appealed that enforcement notice, and a hearing is scheduled for Tuesday 26 November.
