A BUSINESSWOMAN behind a plan to launch a dog day care venture on a former farm has vowed to appeal a decision to block the move.

Jessica Emmerson said she would contest Darlington Borough Council’s second refusal in three months of the scheme for up to eight dogs outside Walworth, near Darlington, after hearing councillors refused to believe the findings of experts she had commissioned.

The authority’s planning committee heard dogs would be “constantly attended to by a member of staff” at the centre from 7.30am to 7.30pm, Monday to Saturday, and the consultant’s noise impact assessment had found the animals would generate less noise than cars.

But residents disputed the consultant’s conclusions, saying they failed to take into account issues such as the prevailing wind direction and the fact the nearest home was just 13m away from the proposed kennels.

The meeting heard arguments that siting the kennels near to people’s homes would infringe residents human rights and hit their quality of life.

Councillor David Lyonette said: “The implications of this application are absolutely obvious.”

The council’s principal environmental health officer Stephen Todd said while it was possible the noise data in the impact assessment could have been “massaged” he could not recall any complaint about dogs barking from a commercial kennels in the last 25 years.

He reiterated that he would be “unable to lodge any form of objection to the proposal”.

However, councillors said their concerns over noise nuisance for residents remained.

Councillor Joe Kelley added: “Experiencing dog barking gets you so down because it is so sporadic.”

The committee’s chairman, Councillor Paul Baldwin said: “Some people are rubbishing the report based on nothing just because people don’t want to make a decision that might upset the residents opposite. It is an old farm, they could move 30 or 40 sheep in there, ten or 20 cows and we would have no control over that.

“We need to give some reasons why the report is not being taken as read. Why is it that people don’t believe it?”

Councillor Gerald Lee replied that not many consultants would produce reports that the people paying them did not want to hear.