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09
Jan
Harrogate dog day care to close after lengthy planning battle
A dog day care company in Harrogate is set to close following three unsuccessful planning applications to operate the business.
Harrogate Dog Day Care took over Strayside House, a former office block on West Park, in April 2024 and has operated at the site ever since.
Owner Sarah Smith has submitted two retrospective planning applications to convert the site into a dog day care facility and overnight accommodation - neither of which were successful due to noise concerns.
The company continued to operate despite not having relevant planning permission, which led the council to take enforcement action against it last September.
However, Ms Smith told the Stray Ferret at the time Harrogate Dog Day Care would be relocating to a “new location with an outside paddock”.
She did not disclose where the new premises would be and the company appears to have remained at Strayside House since.
But, now four months on, the company has announced it will close in February.
In a statement on social media, Ms Smith said:
It is with deep regret and a heavy heart that we must inform you of the closure of our dog day care business. Our last day will be Friday 13th February and you can book as normal up to this date. We have built wonderful relationships and memories with both you and your furry friends and we will sorely miss watching your dogs (our family!) running into our entrance with excitement.
She added the company has submitted three planning applications to the council – two relating to Strayside House and one “rural” application – which all “significantly passed extensive independent noise surveys”.
Despite this, all three were unsuccessful.
Ms Smith said:
It is the decision of the council to change the business use. Two applications were urban and one application was rural. Despite Parliament supporting the urgent need for growth in urban dog day care and rural dog day care, we have been very unlucky.
We would like to thank you all for your support.
The back of the site. The metal fencing, which has now been dismantled, is also visible in the photo.
Planning history
Ms Smith submitted the first retrospective application in October 2024 - six months after it began operating at Strayside House – but withdrew it two months later following noise concerns from residents of the neighbouring Prince of Wales Mansions.
Dr David Holmes, the director of Prince of Wales Mansions (Harrogate) Ltd, said at the time residents had been “disturbed and upset by the volume of barking from the past six-seven months”.
Ms Smith defended the company at the time, telling the Stray Ferret it had implemented new noise management processes, which were "going well".
A second application, which excluded the fenced exercise area previously erected in the Strayside House car park, was put forward the following March.
However, North Yorkshire Council refused the plans due to the “harmful effect on the living conditions of the occupiers of neighbouring properties”.
The council added at the time:
The disturbance arising from the development would be harmful to neighbouring land uses and would detract from the environmental and economic wellbeing of the area.
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