PLANS for a Test Valley club to offer overnight boarding for more dogs have been rejected.
A planning application was submitted to Test Valley Borough Council (TVBC) to allow up to six pooches to stay at the Hampshire Dog Club in Upton Lane, Nursling.
The controversial plans were throw out by TVBC's Southern Area Planning Committee on Tuesday night over fears barking dogs would disturb residents living in a "proposed dementia care home" and were turned down by seven votes to five.
One community leader criticised the application for not "clearly stating" how long it would take someone to respond to an issue on the site, as the dogs would be mainly monitored remotely by CCTV cameras.
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However, in a fiery debate, the applicant hit back at planning chiefs claiming the dog club has "not been one complaint about noise", adding objections to the application were "nonsense".
The applicant, Sean Knowlson, said: "Since 2011 when this site was given planning consent there has not been one complaint about noise or anything else to do with the site.
"It beggars belief I have to continually defend the credibility and professionalism of this facility towards ill-informed individuals who appear to have a distinct lack of knowledge about dogs and their behaviour.
"The planning officer and her colleagues have stood outside of the car park of this building a few metres from the kennels whilst the dogs have been made to bark and they can't even hear them.
"How people 500 metres away can say this is going to impact the local area is absolute nonsense; it's scaremongering."
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Nursling and Rownhams Parish Councillor, Steve Williams, objected to the plans, claiming "aggressive" dogs could disturb neighbours.
He said: "The dogs apparently cannot be boarded anywhere else due to their aggressive nature.
"This indicates there could be a certain amount of disturbance and thereby inconveniencing local inhabitants."
Cllr Phil Bundy, who represents Chilworth, Nursling & Rownhams on the borough council, said the applicant had not demonstrated how the dogs who "may escape" can be stopped from "disturbing residents, particularly those in the dementia care home" [in Grove Place Retirement Village].
He acknowledged the CCTV cameras in the kennels would help monitor the canines, but stressed the plans did not "clearly state how all of this will be managed and how long it will take for a person to respond" to a problem on the site.
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