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West Lothian dog groomer allowed to keep garden cabin after neighbour support
A dog groomer who had faced having to tear down the cabin she built in her back garden to house the business has been told she can keep it after neighbours rallied to support her.
Julie Buchanan paid a builder to put up the cabin in the back garden of her home in Bedlormie Drive, Blackridge, believing it could be done without planning permission.
One neighbour complained that the business was bringing extra traffic into the street with cars idling and driveways being blocked.
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Planners had recommended refusal, given the concerns about increased traffic and scale of the business but acknowledged that they had no objection to the cabin in the large garden of the semi-detached home.
And four other neighbours wrote to the council’s planning control committee in support of Ms Buchanan and her business.
Applying for retrospective planning permission Ms Buchanan told a meeting of the Development Management Committee she had been left £10,000 out of pocket.
She pointed out that on one day last week she had been in her garden and had counted 15 delivery vans in the street between 9am and 11am.
She told the committee: “I work three days a week and the occasional Saturday and it generates two cars every two hours. The customers drop the dogs off and literally take two minutes, no one waits . Grooming can take between two to four hours, no-one sits outside with their car idling for that long.”
Ms Buchanan said that she would phone customers around 20 minutes before she completed the grooming to allow customers time to come back to collect their pets.
She said she also asked customers to park in her driveway when delivering their dogs. She has long-time customers and there had never been incidents of other driveways in the street being blocked.
Ms Buchanan said that if she didn’t win planning permission she would be out of a job along with a full time employee and a girl who volunteers.
Councillor Damian Doran-Timson said the planning papers only suggested there could be more traffic and there was a “potential” for nuisance. He pointed out that if these things were true Transport and Environmental Health officers would have objected.
Planning officer Wendy McCorriston accepted this and said that Transport had offered no comment and Environmental Health had accepted three day during the week operation and only recommended restricted operation until 7pm instead of the existing 8pm.
Councillor Doran Timson said that given a lot of the language used: “I’m not wholeheartedly convinced it will have a negative effect on the area.” and recommended support.
Councillor Lawrence Fitzpatrick recommended that planning permission should be granted given that the applicant was prepared to accept new conditions and that she was working and employed people in a business that was in demand and commonly run from home.
At the start of the meeting Councillor Stuart Borrowman, the chair, told the committee that the house had been his childhood home.
“I grew up in this house and sold it four or five years ago. Secondly I have had about ten emails from neighbours, which I have acknowledged but not commented on.”
Describing his former address as a “select area”. Councillor Borrowman said: “It seems a modest unobtrusive business that has been endorsed by the ten neighbours who have chosen to contact me.
“The reality of the modern day, of delivery vans coming and going. That’s probably far more of a traffic management issue than this business. Knowing the property and how big the garden is I have no difficulty whatsoever with this.”
His recommendation for granting planning permission was seconded by Councillor Doran-Timson. On his suggestion councillors agreed to lift the restriction of the number of days could operate but maintained that the closing time of 7pm should be retained.
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