An unmonitored and unpermitted dog exercise park in Overseal has led to late-night noise and light nuisance for residents - but has received widespread support from users.

At a South Derbyshire District Council meeting this week (June 6) retrospective plans for a dog exercise park at Middle Hayes Farm off Green Lane were debated.

The meeting was told that the facility, owned by Karen Wood, had been operating as the Field of Dreams since April 2021.

An application for permission was submitted to the council in May 2021 but has only now been debated due to a backlog at the authority, and the facility has continued to operate throughout that time.

The applicant said that customers can hire the facility for an hour at a time, for individual use only, with a 15-minute gap between sessions.

A total of 104 letters of support were submitted to the council over the plans, versus seven objection letters.

The support letters detail "the value of the business for the wellbeing of dogs in the area to enable them to be exercised in a safe and secure environment".

They also say the "rise in dog thefts in the area makes it a better place for people to exercise their dogs", along with it being a "great location for training puppies" and is an "asset to the local community" and are supportive of a small rural business.

Objectors wrote that the facility has an impact on traffic on Green Lane and noise in a "tranquil" setting, along with worries about increased business use in a rural area.

However, Cllr Amy Wheelton told the meeting that the site was entirely unmonitored so there were frequently people turning up outside of the allowed operating hours and overlapping with other customers.

She said: "Quite often four vehicles turn up at once and while the applicant says they are looking at a booking system this carries on.

"It is open seven days a week, 365 days of the year, from 7am, but if you turn up at 6.30am you can get in.

"We need to give residents a bit of a break, maybe 9am-5pm. This council has got to do something to protect resident amenity, it used to but then it stopped two or three years ago.

"There is allegedly lighting down there until midnight and there is no condition here for lighting."

Steffan Saunders, the council's head of planning, said 7am until 8pm were considered reasonable hours and that a lighting scheme would need to be submitted and approved.

The application was approved by councillors but with added conditions to restrict the site to 9am until 5pm, with the type and hours of lighting restricted and amplified noise banned.