PLANS to relocate 80 hunting hounds, and an associated fallen stock business, 1.7km west of Treffgarne have been met with consternation by local residents.

The chairman of Pembrokeshire Hunt, Michael Davies, has applied to Pembrokeshire County Council to move the hunt's dog kennels to agricultural land at Tan Y Garne .

The change of use application is for dog kennels, a linked fallen stock business, siting of a caravan for the kennel huntsman and hybrid use of part of the adjacent field as an exercising area for hounds and for agriculture.

The existing agricultural building at the site will be converted to create six kennels, a fallen stock area, a separate feed room, a wash-down utility area, an office and a washroom.

Six outdoor kennel runs, with 1.5-metre-high metal mesh fencing, would also be created.

The hunt's other business is Pembrokeshire Fallen Stock which collects fallen stock, transporting it to the kennels site for feeding to the hounds.

The hounds are fed raw flesh from fallen stock with the unused parts of any carcass stored in closed bins which are taken away by a local firm of renderers when nearly full. Skins or hides are carefully cut from carcasses and sold separately.

Local resident Ros Bradley has set up a petition, which has dozens of signatures, against the application. She says that she is not against the hunt per se but that the application site is in the wrong place, just ¾ of a mile from the village.

She fears that noise and sound from the kennels will travel to adjacent properties but says the worst part of the application is the fallen stock side of the operation. She fears leftovers from this will be kept on site in unsealed bins for up to ten days.

Ros says that the fences are not high enough to stop the dogs jumping over them and is worried that the dogs will be outed among dairy stock when they are known to carry TB.

"Noise and sound will travel," she said. "At five in the morning you don't want to listen to dogs barking.

They will be fed in batches, so that will prolong the noise.

"The urine from 80 dogs will be considerable and could run out onto already wet fields nearby. "

She says the whole village is against the proposals.

'To us it's a huge issue", she said. "It will affect our property values. "It's not vindictive," she said of her opposition. "It's about living next to something noisy, messy and smelly."

The application says there is "perceived to be an odour associated with the delivery and management of the fallen stock and the holding of any waste products prior to rendering". However, it says this is this is minimal and will be contained within the shed.

It says that the hounds only make significant noise in the morning before breakfast and that insulating / soundproofing will be added to the roof and sides of the shed.

A sewage treatment plant to deal with waste from the hounds is included in the plans.