A plan for dog friendly lodges at Wilburton is turned down by Ely planners

Whitecross Farm, Whitecross Road, Streatham (Image: Archant)

Owners of Developing Dogs, a Wilburton animal training business, has people travelling from all over the country for advice and courses, and they wanted to offer visitors accommodation enabling them to stay with their pets.

However, in a meeting of East Cambridgeshire District Council planning committee, permission was turned down because members said any plan should involve re-using existing buildings for a maximum of two dwellings.

Sian Ryan had hoped to turn three former pig sheds into black cladded wooden self-catering holiday lodges.

Planners also said there the application “does not comply “ with planning policies which asks for schemes to be built within or well related to an existing settlement boundary.

Whitecross Farm, Whitecross Road, Streatham. Dog retrieving training lake. (Image: Archant)

Dog owners come from across the UK to see Sian Ryan, who left her job in IT in the city, to launch her business last year.

She hoped to make their stay a little more relaxing, by developing three old pig sheds into self-catering lodges with views over the fen fields surrounding her home in White Cross Road.

She said: “People have said how they have struggle to find dog friendly accommodation when they are on training courses here so it seemed the natural progression to offer it for people.”

Sian who has appeared as an expert on BBC programmes Bang Goes the Theory and Inside the Animal Mind has been training dogs for 10 years and after completing a course in animal behaviour at the University of Lincoln followed her dreams by setting up her business.

A report said the adverse impact would outweigh the benefits.

It added that: “sufficient evidence has not been submitted by the application to justify this need for the holiday accommodation.”