Peebles dog-walking business hoping to get third time lucky with planning bid

The Fast and the Furriest's controversial dog-walking site near Peebles, south-west of Milkieston Toll House.

The Fast and the Furriest has had retrospective planning applications for a dog exercise area near Milkieston Toll House, north of the town, rejected twice, but it’s now put in a revised bid in the hope of getting third time lucky.

Paul Lawrie, boss of the business together with Fiona MacCallum, had his initial application for change of use of farmland off the A703 Peebles-Edinburgh road, submitted in August 2018, turned down in April last year, and that knockback was upheld on appeal to Scottish Borders Council’s local review body in September.

The reason given for those thumbs-downs was concern over the safety of the access road from the site, about 300m long and between 40m and 70m wide, onto the A703, so Mr Lawrie, of Penicuik in Midlothian, is now suggesting blocking off the current entrance and creating a new way in and out.

The new access being proposed would be via a junction leading to the Cringletie Hotel currently under construction.

A supporting statement submitted on Mr Lawrie’s behalf by Planning Solutions Edinburgh, of Roslin in Midlothian, says: “This revised application considers the concerns raised over the previous planning application and the subsequent appeal.

“The application will create a new access to the site via the new junction currently under construction at the entrance to the road off the A703 leading to the Cringletie Hotel.

“This will allow the owners of the site to share the same road as guests en route to the hotel.

“The existing access will be closed off and will no longer be used to access the property.

“The proposed access utilises the new junction and link road, which vastly improves road safety for cars entering or leaving the site.

“Improvements to the site access have ensured the proposal is compliant with best-practice road safety requirements.”

That access would only be used twice a day on weekdays and dogs would only be exercised in the field for three hours a day, according to Mr Lawrie.