AN expert noise report has given a scathing assessment of an applicant’s submission to tonight’s Bathurst Regional Council meeting.
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Councillors will tonight decide the fate of a proposal to open a cattery and kennel on Marys Lane at Dunkeld that has met with significant opposition from neighbours.
Council staff have recommended the development be given the green light, but neighbours are expected to use public question time to issue a final plea to councillors.
And they will be armed with a letter from The Acoustic Group’s Steven Cooper which casts doubts on the findings of an earlier noise report commissioned by the applicant and submitted with the original DA.
Mr Cooper’s letter rejects applicant Brendan McHugh’s assertion that the kennel and cattery would be a sound-proof and state-of-the-art facility and raises concerns about the noise assessments included in the original report.
He also took issue with a claim in a previous letter to council from the applicant that the neighbours who commissioned his response to the original noise report had provided him with misinformation in relation to the development.
“The letter has referred to my report as an ‘opinion statement’ and provides opinions to the council which are technically incorrect,” the letter states.
“In relation to the material that was provided for my review, and contrary to the incorrect claim by Mr McHugh, the material was comprehensive.”
Councillors have been sent copies of Mr Cooper’s final letter which arrived too late to be included in the meeting papers distributed by council last Friday.
Neighbours have also raised concerns about the intersection of Marys Lane and the Mitchell Highway; the suitability of opening a commercial premises on Marys Lane, which is a dirt road; and potential risks to an environmentally-sensitive area.
At the same time, Mr McHugh maintains he has tried to work with council and his neighbours to address their concerns.
In a note to the Western Advocate, Mr McHugh said his family was “trying to make a go of it by running a small business – a permissible business”.
“We will be the smallest kennels in the Bathurst region with only 24 dogs all housed internally at night in their own fantastic rooms with no stimulation making them bark,” he said.
“This is our home and we are just trying to make a go of it – a family business. We are not developers that don’t care – we care.”
