A family who have run a farm near Dursley for 100 years are hoping to harness the rapid growth in dog ownership by opening a commercial dog kennels.

In a bid to head off potential objections, the Steel family has set out noise and complaints handling plans which seek to assure Stroud District Council that the proposed 16-dog facility, at the farm on Silver Street, near Coaley, will keep disturbance to a minimum.

The plans state: "During their time at Ham Farm the dogs will provided with an exceptionally high level of care and they will be housed, fed and watered in well-proportioned and purpose-built kennels and be exercised in safe green spaces with ample opportunity to run and have fun!"

A proposed exercise field will be fenced with a deer-proof design and, the farm says, it hopes permission will end up "increasing productivity of the farm and benefitting the local community".

Details include converting calf-rearing boxes to eight kennels and a separate isolation kennel and external cladding to the existing buildings' walls with timber.

The applicant told planners: "As a farm, we run a five-caravan site for eight months of the year, two storage units for a small local builder and a local floor cleaner. We recently upgraded our stables and built a livery yard for eight horses to replace the use of the stables in the farm yard. One stable is rented to one of the neighbours and the others rented to local people."

Ham Farm's bid comes against a backdrop of UK farmers seeking income sources that are less reliant upon the tight margins of traditional farming. Before the pandemic, the Farmers Guardian reported in 2018 that "matching canines with the countryside could be a lucrative move".

And Statista has estimated that the population of dogs kept as pets in the UK was estimated at 13 million in 2020/21, a marked increase from a decade earlier in 2010/11 when the population was around 7.6 million. Between 2019/20 and 2021/22, the share of UK households owning a pet dog bounded up from 23 per cent to 34 per cent.

Statista added: "This sudden increase could be attributed to the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting government-imposed quarantines that forced people to stay at home.

Economically, the budget for owning a pet has risen dramatically, with expenditure levels peaking at £7.88bn 2020. The annual cost of keeping a pet dog in the UK, as of last year, was estimated at £1,875

Statista estimates boarding expenditure can equate to £450 annually and it is seen as the costliest element of ownership, followed by pet insurance, at £330.

Labrador retrievers remain the most popular dog breed, with around 39,905 registrations in 2020. French Bulldogs have been closing in though, with 39,266 registrations recorded that year. In 2021 the Kennel Club registered 349,013 dogs, compared to 250,659 in 2020 - an increase of 39.2 per cent year-on-year. 

Local government inspectors oversee and issue licences for dog kennels with a trading income above a minimum allowance of £1,000.