THE owners of the region's first doggy day care centre hope a planning review body will come to heel next week.

Paul Lawrie and Fiona McCallum built a new shelter building and erected a five-foot-high perimeter fence at their Fast and Furriest premises near Eddleston almost two years ago.

But the couple later discovered that planning permission was required for the development.

And in February they were refused retrospective permission by Scottish Borders Council.

Mr Lawrie and Ms McCallum have now submitted an appeal, which will be heard by the local authority's Review Body on Monday.

Mr Lawrie stated: "Fiona and I have put a huge amount of effort, money, heart and soul into our centre.

"We do not fill it with huge amounts of dogs - our top priority is the care and safety of the dogs."

The couple claim that they were told in March, 2015, by Scottish Borders Council that neither an operating licence or planning permission was required for their business proposals.

But just after erecting the new dog shelter and perimeter fence they received a letter from local authority's enforcement officer, Linzi Davidson.

Mr Lawrie added: "During a site visit, when asked why we had been told that no application was necessary, and why it was now deemed necessary, we were told that there was a 'distinct lack of communication between departments within the planning authority'.

"As we have always stated we would do whatever it took to keep our centre running and agreed to submit our application."

But in February this year the full application for the site at Burnfoot Siding was turned down on grounds of having an adverse impact on the landscape, not presenting a strong enough case to site the business in the countryside location, and also road safety.

A total of six objections to the plans had been tabled before the decision was made.

Neighbours raised issues regarding the design of the development, inadequate fencing, roads issues, noise and that the centre was detrimental to the amenity of the area.

On Monday morning the appeal will be considered by Scottish Borders Council's Local Review Body.