Who'll let the dogs in?

Friday 26 August 2016

Plans for a multi-million pound dog shelter in the heart of the countryside have made some of the locals barking mad.

Around 75 people turned out to a parish meeting last night to raise their concerns about the JSPCA's plans to kennel up to 85 stray and boarding dogs at La Pepinière Farm & Field 344, part of the green zone on La Rue de Crabbé in St Mary.

Constable Juliette Gallichan said: "People using the lanes for dog walks already say there is nowhere to go, if a dog takes a dislike to another, there is nowhere to pull in and let them pass.

"All of the roads that access the site are in our green road network. We’ve made a real effort to open up that network to make it safe for everyone."

But JSPCA Chief Executive Major Stephen Coleman said: "That's a roads issue, that's a fact of life, there's nothing new there but we have a variety of options available to us including exercising the dogs within the site or going onto the cliff path."

Mr Coleman said the current facilities in St Saviour's Road were built in the 70s and currently house up to 65 dogs - but the new kennels could take another 20.

He said: "We're not allowed to develop here in town. We've got to look to the future. The Island's population is growing at an unprecedented rate. UK experts reckon for every 10,000 increase in population there are about 3,000 extra pets.

"We are regularly full to capacity and we've heard that some kennels are closing so there could be increased demand for our services."

The new kennels have been designed to the latest standards by a specialist architect and include noise-limiting features. The plans have been independently assessed to make sure that the sound doesn't go above 25 decibels, which is significantly quieter than the 35 decibels of noise Mr Coleman says is currently coming from the site.

Constable Gallichan said parishioners were pleased to hear that there would be internal and external soundproofing but there were still concerns about how much extra traffic there would be on their country lanes.

She said: “We teased out a lot more information than we had before. The mood of the meeting afterwards was still concern and people were sceptical about what the true position is after the planning process. But everybody who spoke acknowledged the fact that the JSPCA has an important role to play."

The deadline for submissions is 5 September and the plans are due to go before the Planning Committee on 22 September.

Mr Coleman said that if the kennels get the go-ahead, they'll go out to tender and hope to see the new building complete by December 2017.