Dog exercise field given permission in Shirenewton

A dog exercise field has been given permission as part of plans for a day care facility for man’s best friend in the Monmouthshire countryside. 

The dog day care business is being established by Jo Whistance at Rhewl Cottage in Shirenewton and will see an extension to an existing garage at the cottage created to house the dogs. 

A nearby field will also be used for walking dogs that are being cared for by Mrs Whistance. 

The plans were approved by Monmouthshire County Council’s planning committee which had been asked to decide the application by local councillor Louise Brown, due to objections from Shirenewton Community Council. 

The cottage and the exercise field are outside of the development boundary while the field is also within the Wye Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. 

The community council had said it was concerned about the impact on the local roads and was also concerned about how many dogs would use the facility and how waste would be managed. 

It also said a planed 1.8 meter high deer fence, to be erected around the walking field, was “obtrusive and does not fit in with the surrounding natural environment”. It said proposed planting would take years to establish. 

Planning officer Phil Thomas said the facility would be limited to six dogs at any one time and said there were no objections from environmental health or the council’s highways officer. 

He said the garage extension, which would have a similar design to the existing garage, would provide each dog with 10sq meters of space, which he said “is required for animal welfare reasons”.

Cllr Brown asked that the condition limiting the facility to six dogs at any one time be changed to six dogs a day, but Mr Thomas said that would mean if a dog was returned to its owner in the morning another couldn’t take its place that afternoon. 

The application stated two dogs will be brought to the cottage by their owner with Mrs Whistance collecting and returning the other four. 

Mitchel Troy and Trellech councillor Jayne McKenna complained the committee’s time, and the workload for officers, had been taken up with an application that attracted “just two objections”. 

She said: “The applicant is trying to make a living and grow the economy and by receiving the dogs she is allowing others to go out and work, and that is growing the economy.” 

The application was approved unanimously with the original condition allowing six dogs at any one time remaining in place.