THE peace and tranquility of a quiet village could be shattered if plans for boarding kennels are given the go-ahead, it was claimed this week.

Maggie James, of Manor Farm, Lower Stone, has submitted a planning application to Stroud District Council to turn a redundant agricultural building into 26 boarding kennels and to erect a new building, which would be used as a reception area.

At Monday's meeting of Ham and Stone Parish Council, Mrs James told councillors that diversification was essential for the continuation of the farm.

She said: "We gave a lot of thought as to what use to put the building to and we decided that dog training and boarding kennels was the most obvious option.

"The first part of the build would be 13 kennels to see how it went. My neighbours who are objecting to this plan are some of the people who encouraged me to start this venture."

Objectors to the plan said the kennels would ruin the tranquillity of the Severnside village.

Richard Butterfield said: "Some people are not happy with the proposal - there are more people against than there are for it.

"As for farm diversification, I have no problem with that and I accept that it will happen. I would say though I would prefer cows and tractors going up and down the road to the noise of the kennels. I am anticipating quite a lot of noise.

"I am concerned that a numbers of houses around the farm have dogs and that we will just get a merry-go-round of noise around the centre of the village." Margueritte Whyte said: "I don't see why we need two kennels within 0.8 miles of each other.

"I feel the farm is much to close to residential property. All we have going for Lower Stone is the peacefulness. It is going to devalue our property and nobody would want to buy a house within 500 yards of a kennel.

"Neighbours had no idea of the intention to run a boarding kennel and they had no idea there was going to be 26 kennels at the bottom of their garden. I think that it is totally unacceptable.

"You have got to diversify but there are 101 things that you can do. You can't assure people there isn't going to be any noise. If this goes through and it drives everybody mad you can't do anything about it."

Another resident said: "One of our main concerns is traffic. I have three children and we live on a country road that carries a lot of traffic. I chose to live where I live because it is a quiet, peaceful, rural village and I don't want to find that there is an increase in traffic. I have my young children to think about."

Mrs James told objectors: "I need some form of a living and the boarding side of things is going to be the bread and butter of what I am going to do. Twenty-six kennels is not big money. It is a small in comparison to what kennels generally are."

Chairman Cllr Penny Wride said: "If any resident has a valid planning objection they need to write individual letters to the planning authority as soon as possible. We the council can't say we don't want it unless there are valid reasons."

She added that the council would request a site visit so the development control committee was familiar with the area before making a decision.