Locals bite back over plans to change hunt kennels into storage units

Plans have been put forward to turn the old Berks and Bucks Drag Hunt hounds kennels into a furniture storage unit.

But they are not popular with locals concerned with large amounts of ‘change of use’ applications in the Lambourn/Membury area causing ‘industrial creep’.

The proposal is to erect a building for storing products stocked and sold by Kingsley Smythe Ltd.

The proposal also states it will permanently remove a noisy kennel facility from the Area Outstanding Natural Beauty – although the hounds are no longer in residence.

Local residents are objecting to the application, which would turn a rural enterprise into an industrial one.

“The Lambourn Woodlands/Membury area has had a huge amount of planning applications submitted recently for this type of construction and ‘change of use’, which on their own don’t appear to cause a problem,” wrote Lindas Culley.

“However, when added together have eroded the ‘AONB’ status and traffic and road noise has increased.

“The local road infrastructure just can’t cope with the amount of large vehicles now travelling along Ermin Street and this application will only add to this issue. West Berks Council need to create a development plan for this area which outlines what the area can cope with in terms of traffic, light, pollution, jobs etc and assess all applications holistically.”

The plans are recommended for approval by West Berkshire Council and were due to be decided at the Western Area Planning Committee as this paper went to press yesterday (Wednesday).