Owners of an East Lancs dog training business look set to be given temporary permission for worker’s living accommodation and kennels at a green belt location, if they can provide a noise assessment and meet other planning conditions.

The owners of K9 Rehab at Bridge Lodge, Woodend Road, Reedley, want planning permission from Pendle Council to convert part of a stables building into accommodation, and to have five kennels and to keep using the plot for dog work.

K9 Rehab has been the focus of a number of planning applications and enforcement activity over the past year or so.

Applicant Lisa Tennant says the business provides specialist services to dog owners and organisations across the north.  It is often the ‘last chance’ for many 'difficult' dogs.

Mrs Tennant’s first bid last year for a bungalow was supported by the Nelson area committee but opposed by planning officers and eventually refused by senior councillors. 

This year’s follow-up application seeks temporary permission for partial  conversion of the stable. But planning officers again recommended refusal. They believe the  business could be located elsewhere and there are no special circumstances to justify a new home or business on greenbelt land.

But earlier this month area committee members indicated their support for Mrs Tenant’s latest plan, against officers’ recommendation.

Under council rules, the application had to go to the development management committee for a decision.

Mrs Tennant told that committee the business employs one full-time worker and four part-time assistants. It deals with more than 60 dogs a week. Part of the stables had been used for worker’s accommodation since April. Temporary planning permission would allow the arrangement to be tested.

But there have been objections, with one letter suggesting luxury accommodation would be developed there. Reedley Hallows Parish Council also objected.

A mobile home has been removed in the past by planning enforcement and there was a previous refusal to building a bungalow. This latest attempt would be inappropriate development in the green belt, the parish believed.

Borough planning officers also believed the latest application would be inappropriate development in the green belt. Under planning policy, very special circumstances needed to be shown to support K9 Rehab which would clearly outweigh any harm, they added.

There are worries the living accommodation would in an ‘unsustainable, isolated location’ and there is no essential need for a rural worker to live there. There are also worries about noise from the kennels.

But the development management committee ruled a senior planning officer should be given delegated authority to give consent, subject to K9 Rehab providing a satisfactory noise assessment and meeting other conditions.