A new dog day care centre will be coming to St Martins after getting approval from Shropshire Council.

The council has granted planning permission for a new dog day care centre to be built on the site of a stable in New Marton.

The plans were put in to build the new facility at Malt House. In the plans put forward to the council the owners of the business said: “The proposal is to provide dog day care for families who require stimulating care and activities for their dog on a daily basis while they are at work.

“There is a huge demand for this type of facility since the Covid pandemic as people who acquired dogs while isolated at home now find there is a difficulty in caring for their pet now they have returned to work.

“The centre will be run by the applicants' family and will make use of a redundant stable block and part of their land holding to provide an exercise and training area.

READ MORE: 

“The site is located in the settlement of New Marton which is closely associated with the large village of St Martins, it will remain largely unchanged preserving the rural nature of the site.

“There is a good existing secure access with electronically controlled gates.”

In a report, an officer for Shropshire Council’s planning department said that potential noise at the site would be limited as “no facilities would be provided on weekends or bank holidays and the intention is that drop off and collection times would be flexible".

“An additional dog taxi service would also be offered," they added.

“The accompanying statement explains that a record of bookings and activities would be kept and available for inspection by the Local Authority. A secure skip for collection of dog waste would be provided by a contractor.”

They conclude: “The proposal relates to a small scale business reutilising a small area of land and an existing stable building and is deemed to be broadly acceptable under Policy CS5 which supports small-scale new economic development in the countryside.

“The proposal is considered to have no significant highway safety implications or major impact on residential or visual amenity or ecology, in conflict with policies CS6 and MD2, that might warrant refusal. The application is therefore recommended for approval.”