Dog Training in Belchamp Walter

The page is concerning the current, June 2023, dog training and exercise area at Clark's Farm Belchamp Walter.

It was prompted by the Extra Ordinary Parish Council Meeting that was held to discuss the open planning application for the expansion of this business. The residents of Belchamp Walter are not happy with what is going on at Clark's farm and have voiced their concerns to the Parish Council. However, there seems to be confusion about what can be done about the situation.

There are two issues here. The first is that the current activity at Clark's Farm appears to be in violation with the planning application that was approved for a "Secure Dog Walking and Exercise Area". The second is with the new application to expand the facility to include kenneling for up to 36 dogs and the erection of a support building. There is little mention of the "Training" aspect of the proposal and it is unclear what the nature of this "Training" would entail.

Initially, I was going post a comment on the open planning application in addition to the one the Parish Council has posted in response to the meeting. I was also going to post a Planning Breach comment on the planning application that was approved in November 2022.

However, this issue in not going to get resolved unless the previous planning application is addresed in that the applicants are breaching the conditions of their prior approval and that they are not even following the statements they made in the initial submission of the planning application.

This page is going to take a while to compose as there is lot of information that clearly needs to be presented. I KNOW that this page will be indexed by Google and if it does not result in recorded "impressions" (i.e. there are Inrernet user making a search on Google and finding a link to this page), I will know. If this proves to be the case I will have it confirmed that residents are far happier moaning about the situation to the Parish Council and/or on Socaial Media.

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Both planning applications refer to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), and these words are those of Salter & Mckenna who prepared the submissions.

While the NPPF sets out the current goverment policy for England and how they should be applied to locally-prepared plans for housing and other development, in many cases the sections referenced have no relevance to life in Belchamp Walter.

Under Section 2, paragraph 8 b), the Social Objective......

" a social objective – to support strong, vibrant and healthy communities, by ensuring that a sufficient number and range of homes can be provided to meet the needs of present and future generations; and by fostering well-designed, beautiful and safe places, with accessible services and open spaces that reflect current and future needs and support communities’ health, social and cultural well-being; and ...... "

Neither of the two proposals provide well-designed, beautiful places --- that reflect current and future needs and support communities' health, social and cutural well-being. Quite the contrary, the mental health of those that have to experience the current noise of the first approved submission is seriously compromised and there is no befefit to the villages cultural well-being.

Where specific paragraphs from NPPF are quoted in both proposals they are clearly not being followed in the first approved proosal and there is litte suppose that they will be if the current open application is approved. In addition to the areas relating to sustainability and diversification they, in my opinion, have been misinterpreted from the policy guidance.

I will cite these in the following sections on the two applications.

Paragraph 85 of the NPPF says:

" Planning policies and decisions should recognise that sites to meet local business and community needs in rural areas may have to be found adjacent to or beyond existing settlements, and in locations that are not well served by public transport. In these circumstances it will be important to ensure that development is sensitive to its surroundings, does not have an unacceptable impact on local roads and exploits any opportunities to make a location more sustainable (for example by improving the scope for access on foot, by cycling or by public transport)..... "

Both the proposals and plannning applications are NOT sensitive to their surroundings in that they have an unaccptable impact on local roads and there are many residents who are avoiding the areas of the proposed developments. Community needs are not being met and there appears to be a complete disregard for the community at large.

The application for the secure excerise area

This is the "Appproved" planning application

First I will start with the Planning Statement that wes submitted with the original application. I will then go on to discuss the conditions on which the application was approved, and lastly how these proposals and conditions have not been followed and not been met.

Sect 2 of the planning statement:

The application for the 36 Kennels and Support Building

This is the current/open planning application to expand the business activity at Clark's Farm.

The introduction of this page and the discussion regarding the approved planning references the NPPF so there is no need to repeat them here. The Local Planning Policy (LPP) is also quoted. The biggest issue here is that there are no NEW local amenities being added here by the buildng of kennels for people outside the community.

Sect 5 of the planning statement:

" Kennels are usually found in rural areas that provides an appropriate environment for the dogs and separation from surrounding residences so that there would not be the potential for there to be a noise nuisance. In view of the underlying planning policies that promote the development and diversification of agricultural and other land-based rural businesses, support rural development on a small scale by the NPPF, the Council’s support for the proposal is sought "

There is already a noise nuisance from the first "secure" dog walking-excerise area.

Important Dates

Seeing that the Extra Ordinary Parish Council meeting was 20 June 2023 there was at least a week for residents of the village to make comments on the application.

The date of Tuesday 27th June 2023 is stated on the BDC website as the "Neighbour Consultation Expiry Date" - this date is not explained on the BDC website. It is not known whether submissions posted after this date will be considered in the decision of the application.

The Parish Council comment was posted Saturday 24th June.

Dog Training in Belchamp Walter

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