EARTHWORKS on a pet hotel at Dunkeld could start in a month as the project inches closer to fruition.
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New road signs associated with the hotel have been installed by Roads and Maritime Services, but Bathurst Regional Council has been accused again of being difficult in its dealings with the project.
The development application for the pet hotel was knocked back by councillors twice, eventually leading to it moving to the NSW Land and Environment Court.
Brendan McHugh and his family – who moved to Bathurst from Sydney – want to build the pet hotel on their small farm at Dunkeld.
Neighbours close to Mr McHugh’s property off Marys Lane campaigned to have the kennels blocked and won the support of the majority of councillors, who knocked back the DA twice.
This was despite council’s town planning department and external experts advising councillors that they should give consent for the initiative and, if they didn’t, they could be taken to the NSW Land and Environment Court and would lose.
The councillors cited four reasons for knocking back the DA: road safety; it was not in the public interest; noise; and environmental concerns.
Mr McHugh stuck to his guns and the court ruled in his favour, allowing the pet hotel to proceed and costing council $110,000 in legal costs – and counting.
“The councillors have a lot to answer for to the community,” Mr McHugh said.
The Dunkeld Pet Hotel will feature 24 dog kennels, a cattery for 20 cats and shelter for up to 20 other small animals.
Mr McHugh said progress was still slow, but that he would not be giving up.
“I’m afraid council is still being difficult indeed,” he said.
“For example, I have to write a noise management policy as agreed in court.
“Easy, I thought, and wrote it. However, they have asked me to write one that seems more similar to a large mining operation.
“It seems council are trying to delay me and just make things hard, so I am currently fighting them on this point. But if they think I am going to go away, I am not. I’ve come too far to turn back now.
“We have already implemented stage one of the pet hotel, as we now have new road signs installed by the RMS. Hopefully, if we can work through the noise report issues with council, earthworks will start in about four weeks.”
Mr McHugh said he bought the property at Dunkeld in December 2013 and applied for the development application for the kennels less than two months after that.
“That shows how long this has been dragging along for,” he said.
