The cattery, with capacity for 24, would be built in a residential area (Pictures: Space To Build/Getty)
Plans for a cattery to be built in a back garden have been given the green light despite neighbours’ fears about constant ‘loud meows’.
Spelthorne Borough councillors approved the ‘cat hotel’ last week, after a debate about whether the business would negatively impact the people living near it.
Permission for the business to operate has been granted for two years, after which the owners can apply for permanent permission – if they can show it does not ‘prejudice the residential amenity of surrounding dwellings’.
The cattery, which will be built in the garden of a house on a residential street in Ashford Town, Surrey, will be able to host up to 24 animals in 12 walk-in style pens.
Conservative ward councillor Olivia Rybinksi was against the plans, arguing the development would ‘generate noise pollution and smell’.
‘If anyone has one cat, they know how loud a meow can sound. Now times that by 24. Day and night,’ she said.
But co-applicant Nicola Aldridge told the planning committee the building would be ‘completely enclosed’ and this would ‘greatly reduce’ the sound coming from it.
This is what the proposed cattery in Ashford Town, Surrey, would look like (Picture: Space To Build)
A resident also spoke out against the cattery, saying it would mean ‘enjoying garden space may be hampered by cat noise which in turn makes outside space much less enjoyable. It is clear consideration has not been made to those residents trying to enjoy their own private space’.
She said one neighbour’s garden, which is just four feet away from where the building will go up, ‘would be totally open to noise and odour when the cattery windows are open in the daytime’.
Ms Aldridge responded: ‘Cats are clean and do not smell, each pen is cleaned daily with regular checks throughout the day to monitor the cats and remove any waste.
‘Odour-reducing cat litter will be in use. Cat waste is bagged and stored in a container ready for collection by a specialist company.’
She also promised the enclosures would be built with ‘one-way glass’ so ‘cats can see out, but can’t be seen outside’.
The cattery will be built on property surrounded by residential homes (Picture: Spelthorne Borough Council)
The committee went on to hear that locals were concerned about the increase in traffic the cattery’s clients would generate.
Ms Aldridge explained that a week-long traffic survey she had helped conduct showed there was enough parking during the business’s opening times and added that she would be offering a home drop-off service for the cats.
Green Party councillor Malcolm Beecher, for Staines, told how a cattery has just been granted permanent planning permission after a two-year trial to assess its impact on surrounding neighbours.
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He said: ‘You can go past it and you don’t even know it’s a cattery – apart from maybe the three domestic cats that may be wandering around outside the front garden.
‘You just do not know, you do not hear it, you do not smell it, there is very little traffic in the roads to notice. You just don’t know it’s a cattery. I don’t expect there to be anything different with this one.’
The cattery authorised after seven votes in favour, six against and two abstentions.
It is now allowed to be open to the public before 8am or after 11am Monday to Saturday, or before 10am or after 12pm on Sundays, and will be closed on bank holidays.
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The ‘cat hotel’ would be able to hold 24 animals in 12 walk-in style pens.