Reptile farm can continue

10:19am Saturday 21st July 2007

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REPTILE expert Jerry Cole today told of his relief after planners allowed him to carry on breeding some of the world's rarest creatures at his farm near Dorchester.

His retrospective application for a change of use to allow him to breed exotic animals at Purlands Farm was approved - despite a West Dorset District Council planning officer recommending refusal.

Instead, members of the council's development control committee granted consent.

Afterwards Mr Cole said: "It's a huge relief. I've been ill with worry about this - it's given me pneumonia. But I can say that common sense has prevailed.

"I'm very pleased because if I didn't get it then I would have had to close down. I can't move anywhere else."

The application to use a two-storey agricultural building at the farm, one mile west of Dorchester on the A35, came when council enforcement officers took action following Mr Cole's use of the site to breed rare reptiles and snakes since he bought the farm 10 years ago.

Planning officer Darren Rogers recommended refusal, claiming the enterprise breached planning policies about development in the countryside.

He told committee members the business was better suited to the edge of town or on an industrial estate.

But councillors backed Mr Cole.

Coun Stella Jones called for approval because she thought the location was better in Dorchester.

She said: "This person has made a great success of it."

Ward member Stephen Slade said: "The use is innocuous and it does not impinge on the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

"The site was previously used for intensive pig rearing with many more traffic movements on the A35."

Mr Cole said he would now have to seek planning consent for a caravan that he lives in on the site. He said he needs to be close to give round-the-clock care.

His collection includes rare reptiles that are nearly extinct in the wild. His successes include hatching Fiji banded iguanas and Cuviers dwarf cayman, a type of alligator. He has supplied zoos and wildlife parks in the UK and overseas to help with breeding programmes to save rare species.