A 12-bed cat “hotel” will be built in Ashford despite neighbours’ fears over smell and “loud meows”. Plans for the cattery at 89 Marlborough Road, Ashford, were called in for debate by Councillor Olivia Rybinski, Conservative ward councillor for Ashford Town, on the grounds that it would “generate noise pollution and smell”.
She also said it would be an “overdevelopment of the garden” and that people bringing their cats to the site would create too much traffic. Spelthorne Borough Council’s planning committee approved the cattery catering up to 24 felines on Wednesday, May 31.
Speaking against the development, one resident said: “It is clear residents adjoining and surrounding 89 Marlborough Road have concerns that the introduction of a cattery to a fully residential area is not appropriate and lacks consideration to other residents”.
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‘Smell pollution of 24 cats could stop neighbours using their gardens’
She said they had “all stressed concerns for additional traffic and parking,” adding “cattery clients when briefly dropping and picking up will have little regard for parking on the T-junction.” On the issue of noise, she said: “Every cat is different and not one cat will make as much noise as another. So quantifying noisy proposed cattery will be difficult.
“It is documented, it is not possible to guess or control noise especially to both adjoining neighbours. This will 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.”
Another neighbour’s garden, she said, was only four feet from the proposed building leaving them “totally open to noise and odour when the cattery windows are open in the daytime.” She said many people had moved to the area as the nearby park and river gave it a sense of being in the countryside. She added: “This road is in the proximity of the River Ash and the parkland behind, already means foxes and rats are rife in the street. This will only encourage more.”
The residents’ objections were supported by Councillor Rybinski, who said the detrimental effects of the cattery, in particular the noise pollution from up to 24 cats, would be very difficult to live next to. Cllr Rybinski said: “If anyone has one cat they know how loud a meow can sound. Now times that by 24. Day and night.”
She added: “There are many ducks, ducklings, squirrels and birds that live in this park, because I’ve seen them….and the noise could scare them away. The smell pollution of up to 24 cats, especially in the heat, would be awful for residents and could stop them from enjoying their gardens.”
‘Cats are clean and do not smell’
Speaking in favour of the plans was co-applicant Nicola Aldridge. She told the committee there would be “one way glass” used “meaning cats can see out, but cant be seen outside”. She said their own week-long traffic survey showed ample parking during the cattery’s opening times, including two spaces outside the premises and that they would be offering a home drop-off service of the cats.
She said: “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.
The building was “completely enclosed”, she told the committee, which would “greatly reduce” sound. Concerns raised during the meeting, that cats would be up all night calling out in distress, were dismissed with officers who explained that cats “are actually crepuscular, which means they are most active at dawn and dusk. This idea of them being nocturnal is a bit of a myth.”
The council had recently granted permanent planning permission for a cattery in nearby Staines, the committee heard. It came after a two-year trial permission was granted to help determine its impact on neighbours.
Councillor Malcolm Beecher (Staines, Green Party) said: “As the ward councillor for where the existing cattery is, 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 Ashford cattery was approved by seven votes in favour to six against with two abstentions. The application, for 12 walk-in style pens in property’s rear garden was granted for two years with environmental health responsible going forward.
The owners can apply for permanent permission based on the trial which is being run ensure it does not “prejudice the residential amenity of surrounding dwellings”. The cattery cannot 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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