Cattery or kennels in the countryside: siting and access

Kennels countryside planning permission turns on three things in almost every case: whether the site is a sustainable location for a rural business, whether barking can be controlled at the nearest dwelling, and whether the access is good enough for the traffic the business generates. Animal boarding is a sui generis use, outside every class in the Use Classes Order, so there is no permitted development route and no conversion within a class. Every kennels or cattery is a planning application.

The licensing regime runs alongside and is separate. A licence under the Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018 is needed from the same council, judged on animal welfare standards rather than planning policy, and one does not imply the other.

Policy for rural business development

National policy supports sustainable rural economic growth, including the diversification of agricultural and other land-based businesses, and it accepts that some rural businesses have to be in the countryside because that is where the land is. Boarding kennels fit that description better than most rural business proposals, because the separation from housing that the use needs is only available outside settlements.

That does not make the location automatic. The policy expectation is that sites are well related to existing settlements or existing groups of rural buildings, and that new isolated buildings in the open countryside are avoided where an existing building could be used.

Reusing an existing farm building is therefore the strongest starting point. It answers the siting objection, it usually answers the landscape objection, and it converts an argument about principle into one about detail.

Green Belt is a different matter. Inappropriate development in the Green Belt is harmful by definition and needs very special circumstances, while the re-use of permanent and substantial buildings can be acceptable where it preserves openness. New kennel buildings, hardstanding, exercise paddocks and fencing all affect openness, so a Green Belt proposal needs the case built around re-use rather than new build.

Siting to control noise at neighbours

Barking is the reason most kennels applications are refused, and distance alone is a weak answer.

Environmental health officers approach it through a combination of measured background levels at the nearest dwelling, the predicted level from the proposed operation, and character corrections for the impulsive and intermittent nature of the sound. BS 4142 is the usual starting framework for sound of a commercial nature, and it is not a comfortable fit for animal noise, so expect the assessment to include acoustic modelling and a qualitative judgement alongside the numbers.

What actually controls noise is building design and management rather than separation.

• Insulated kennel buildings with sealed, mechanically ventilated ranges rather than open runs.
• Acoustic lobbies at entrances so doors are never open to the outside while dogs are barking.
• Individual runs oriented away from the nearest dwelling, with a solid barrier between the runs and the boundary.
• No outdoor access during early morning and evening periods, secured by condition.
• A management plan covering arrival and departure times, exercise routines and staffing.

Offer the conditions rather than waiting for them. A Noise Impact Assessment that models the proposed building and recommends its own limits reads as a designed solution, and councils generally expect an acoustician to prepare it.

Catteries are quieter and the assessment is proportionately lighter, though odour and traffic still apply.

Building design in open countryside

A kennels building is a shed with runs, and it will be judged on whether it reads as a farm building or as a suburban structure dropped into a field.

The moves that work are the ordinary ones. Simple rectangular plan, shallow pitched roof, dark profiled metal or timber boarding, no decorative detailing, minimal glazing on the elevations facing open views. Keep hardstanding tight to the building and use a bound gravel rather than black tarmac. Group new buildings with existing ones rather than spreading across the plot.

Lighting is the detail that causes objections after approval. A yard lit to commercial levels is visible for miles in an unlit landscape, so specify downward-directed luminaires, low mounting heights, warm colour temperature and a curfew, and offer a lighting condition.

Where the site is in a National Landscape or a National Park, or in a sensitive setting, a Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment will usually be expected, and the scope should be agreed with the authority before it is commissioned.

Access, visibility and traffic

The traffic a boarding business generates is modest in volume and concentrated in time. Arrivals and collections cluster at the start and end of holiday periods, at weekends and around bank holidays, which is exactly when a single track lane is least able to absorb them.

The highway authority will look at visibility splays at the site access measured against the recorded speed of traffic on the road rather than the speed limit, the width of the access and the first stretch of the lane, passing places, and the turning and parking area within the site so that no vehicle reverses onto the highway.

Provide a swept path for the largest vehicle expected, including a delivery lorry for feed and bedding. Provide parking for staff and for customers separately, and show a turning head. A short transport statement setting out the expected trip pattern, the peak periods and the access geometry answers most of the highway authority's questions before they are asked.

Where the lane is clearly substandard, a proposal to widen the access and provide passing bays under a section 278 agreement is often what turns a holding objection into a recommendation.

Drainage and waste from animal housing

Foul drainage from kennels is not domestic sewage and cannot be treated as though it is.

Wash-down water carries disinfectant, detergent and solids, and the volume peaks daily. Where there is no mains connection, a package treatment plant has to be sized for the loading, and any discharge to ground or to a watercourse is regulated by the Environment Agency, either under the general binding rules or by permit depending on the volume and the receiving environment. A soakaway sized on a domestic rule of thumb will fail.

Solid waste, including bedding and faeces, is a commercial waste stream requiring a registered carrier and transfer notes. Animal by-product rules apply to carcasses.

Set this out in the application rather than leaving it to a condition. Drainage is the commonest cause of a kennels approval stalling at discharge of conditions stage, because the solution has cost implications the applicant had not budgeted.

Residential accommodation tied to the business

Most operators want a dwelling on site, and animal welfare gives a real functional argument for a presence overnight.

The test is the essential need for a rural worker to live permanently at or near their place of work. The evidence has to cover the functional need, meaning why someone must be present rather than on call nearby, the financial position of the business showing it is established and can support the dwelling, and the size of the dwelling being proportionate to the need.

Expect a staged route. A temporary permission for three years in a caravan or a modest unit, then a permanent dwelling if the business is trading as forecast. Expect an occupancy condition tying the dwelling to the business, and understand that the condition reduces the value and the saleability of the house.

Where the business is a diversification of an existing farm, the existing farmhouse usually answers the need, and an application for a second dwelling is much harder.

Licensing that runs alongside

The 2018 Regulations require a licence for boarding dogs or cats as a business, issued by the local authority against statutory conditions, with a star rating that affects the licence duration.

The licensing standards cover kennel and cat unit sizes, exercise provision, isolation facilities, staffing ratios, record keeping and emergency arrangements. They determine the building you have to construct, so read them before the architect draws anything. A planning permission for a building that cannot be licensed is worthless.

Run the two processes in parallel and talk to both teams. The same authority, two different officers, and neither will tell you what the other needs. Where the proposal is a change of use of existing buildings on a holding, the sui generis point is worth confirming early, and tattoo studios, barbers and sui generis use explains how those uses sit outside the class system.

This is general guidance, not legal advice, so check the position with your local planning authority and the licensing team before relying on it. Enter your postcode on PlanScope to see which reports a rural business proposal is likely to need.

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