HELP, I have had a complaint from a local neighbour about my dogs barking. The council came out and were quite pleased with the lack of barking my dogs exhibited... next thing I know I have planning dept on my doorstep saying I may need a change of use, license etc. I was then told I would not be granted any of these in a residential area and a 6 dog rule applies. Meaning as I live in a so called quiet residential area (I live on a VERY LARGE island, leading to a main motorway) Tell me it is quiet and my dogs (limited) barking can even be heard over the traffic. Now I have a letter from the council saying I have to abide by this 6 dog rule... sadly for me I have 6 dogs and 3 dogs under 12 months...

I need as much information as possible to help change this ruling upon our household.. I would rather sell my house than any of my dogs!!

Thanks in advance

There was quite a lot about this in the dog press a little while ago,  the council told a gentleman that he had to comply wiht this 6 dog rule, and that he would need planning permission, but when he queried just what the permissions was for, they could not tell him!  It got quite long drawn out, and he was ver insisten (think he was a magistrate himself) and he pressed and pressed for the LA to give him exact details of their requirments, and they could tell him nothing, and ended up dropping the whole thing!  It is a bye-law which some LAs have adopted, but certainly some of them dont have any follow through on it.  Try having a search of the dog press sites and see if you can come up with the articles - may give you some tips.
bye
Gwen

I do have a copy from the Our dogs online (I subscribe) but not enough information is said about this 6 dog rule.... I need a bit more to go forward to the council... otherwise I may be selling up... not an easy task when you live almost on a traffic island!!
Thanks for your help, I remembered reading the articles some time ago (January) ... and of course never thought it would happen to me... :-( but here we are.. everytime my dogs bark I cringe knowing there is a neighbour who will remain anonymous out there listening to every sound my dogs make.. life is just not the same since that letter arrived
:-(

Think you should ask them what they are talking about to let you have all the details of this rule and all it's implications. Then set about sending a letter every other day or so to ask for them to explain some point or other. Or ask for the information and then speak to one of the organisations who help people in trouble with their dogs. Justice for dogs I think one is called.

justice for dogs

Don't forget under the data protection act you have the right to see everything the council holds on you the computer studd & the hard copies so you are entitled to see the wording of the complaint if not the actual complaint itself.

I would suggest you contact the council for advice re getting the correct planning permission to have more than 6 dogs(especially if you have no kennels) Why ? because there are no guidelines so they will not be able to classify what planning persmission you need They cannot ask you register as a kennels if you do not need a breeders licence so they are between a rock &  hard place not you

Contact & join Justice for Dogs it will be worth it

Thank you first off to everyone who has submitted a bit of help. I will be in touch with the organizations provided... as well will be getting to the bottom of the councils complaint.
I received a letter stating I must not keep more than 6 dogs (I have 9) and not breed more than 1 litter per year... Funny because the kennel club states one can breed 4 litters in any 12 months.
I currently have 6 double kennels and another almost triple size kennel as well as a double insulated kennel...

I was told by the planning officer that no planning permission was needed because the kennels had been errect for longer than 4 years. Therefore no permission is needed. BUT I could not keep more than 6 dogs on a residential property. If more than 6 dogs at one residential property is wanted a change of use is required.. to what? I have no idea. But they said it would be denied anyway...
Further our letter we received stated that the original complainee has now made a verbal statement that the dogs barking is minimal during the day and could be tolerable!!! I am fuming,
So I do not understand why anything has to change, and he could not answer.. just stated that there is a precedent set and mentioned the "6 dog rule" based on a court proceeding many years ago.

I will be in touch with the council to hopefully clear up any problems that they may have with my current 6 adults and 3 pups under 12 months... which I made very clear to him, I have a hobby of showing, breed the od litter for the ring, but I am not a business as I put all my money back into the dogs, and the shows.

Thanks again for all your help!!

I think it was Nick Mays who wrote the article in Our Dogs, try phoning them and seeing if you can speak to him and speak to Ann Harpwood at Justice for Dogs she is great.

Ask them what they want you to apply for Planning Permission actually FOR.  This seemed to the the point they came unstuck with in the published case.  You have to know what it is before you can apply!  And the info about only breeding 1 litter a year?  Ask where they got this from, as the Sale and Breeding of Dogs act (which is Government legislation, not a local Gov. bye law!) states that an individual can breed up to 4 litters a year before needing a license.  Dont think local gov bye laws are allowed to overturn Westminster rulings!
bye & good luck
Gwen

This is what I thought, he stated that our residential area our deeds state we cannot run a business from our property. I stated that I am not. His response was how can you say that when you have so many dogs... my reply was I have only as many dogs as I can still call my family. His response was limited!
I will be looking further into it... I am hoping nothing can be done with regards to my dogs... since this is our first complaint since we moved here 5 years ago!!

Thanks for the help!!

As mentioned, research this ruling in as many places as possible and as suggested ask what the planning permission is for, this could be enough to make them give up if they cannot find a nice little slot to pigeon-hole you into.

Also take a copy of the latest dog breeding act for his perusal and ask him to show you where it states that you can only breed one litter per year (it doesn't).

Speak to your neighbours, you may be surprised how much support that you will get from them, providing your dogs are not creating a nuiscance.
We have been nervous in the past that our dogs may not be popular with the neighbours, but we have been surprised by the nice comments that close neighbours have made about our dogs. You may also have a bit of noteriety and affection as 'that local eccentric with all those dogs'!

Contact Justice For Dogs, Dog World, Our Dogs, the KC local newspapers (they always like stories that concern citizen v jobsworth) and anyone else you think may be able to help you.

Treat him with the utmost respect and try not to lose your temper, this will give you the upper hand.
Jumped-up little ba****ds like him need to be beaten and humiliated. He probably has an inferiority complex and if you stand up to him, he will slide back under the stone from which he crawled from.

Please keep us informed as to the progress of your case, you have my full support and I'm sure that I'm not the only one. United we stand, divided we fall.

snomaes

Thank you to everyone for your support.. I will be very busy this weekend I think.... as for the noise the dogs make... they goto bed at 9:30 everynight and I and noone else hears a peep from them til 8-9 am. they have large enough kennels to be comfortable and they do like their sleep. Probably the most noise they make is first thing in the morning when it is feeding time and playtime. But in all fairness between 8-9am everyone is on there way to work and our traffic island is that noisy no one would hear the dogs barking anyway. When I say barking I mean a couple barks from each dog til they get their morning kisses.
We have spoken to the nearest neighbours... (we live on a very small close on a private road) and all seem to be fine, we even have a police officer who lives at the end of our road who said our houses in the vicinity of us have been a block of a few who have not had a breakin whilst we had travellers living up the road for 8 weeks!!! Bet the complainee did not take note of that lol

I will let you know how I get on..
Thanks for all your support, it has been really nice to see such supportive emails from total strangers who can obviously understand what we are going through. I am sure you will be hearing from me soon...

Which neighbour complained ?? I thought there had to be two complaints with evidence and not hearsay.

I am assuming (not sure if that is safe lol) but I am aware of only 1 nieghbour that complained (and they will not say who or where they are in the vicinity to me "privacy of complainee", and with no evidence other than the dogs are barking??? As soon as she complained they were here... my first complaint in 5 years that we have lived here! As well she is now saying it is only during the day at different times and it is tolerable. But now the damage is done and the council now know how many dogs I have on my property.

Do you mean you have 6 dogs in total or 9 and what size are they. With regards to your neighbours do you think they would be willing to sign a short declaration stating that your dogs are not noisy and they like having them there, especially the policeman.

I have found the paper with the last article in it if you give me your email address or mail me privately I will send it to you.

My OH calls me a horder but this time it has come in useful.

I have 6 adult dogs, and 3 under 12 months at the moment, so total 9 dogs. of which 1 is a med breed and the others large breed.