Plans for police kennels at former animal shelter

A former cat and dog shelter could be knocked down to make way for a dedicated police dog kennels.

Northumbria Police is looking to demolish Newcastle Dog and Cat shelter, on Claremont Road in Newcastle, and replace it with kennels and a training facility.

Its previous site in Ponteland closed in 2016 and since then the force has been relying on temporary arrangements, planning documents said.

The new facility will include two buildings including kennels, administration and training facilities, parking spaces and a dog exercise and training field.

An existing access point onto Hunters Moor would be removed as part of the proposal, but the application said the Freemen, who look after the city's moors, "intend to install a new access gate" close to the junction of Claremont Road and Grandstand Road.

"The new gate would be more accessible than the existing cowgate and would therefore improve access to Hunters Moor," documents added.

The facility would be accessed via existing vehicular access from Claremont Road and via a new pedestrian access from the same road.

The building will not go beyond the existing dog and cat shelter site, but a fence would be erected to enclose part of Hunters Moor.

The application said demand for trained police dogs had increased since the Ponteland facility closed.

According to documents, the force was "relying heavily" on private commercial kennels to accommodate the dogs when officers were on leave, but these facilities were "regularly full".

"A new purpose-built kennelling facility within Newcastle city centre will ultimately improve the service Northumbria Police are able to provide to the public," the documents added.

Newcastle Dog and Cat Shelter's base on Claremont Road has been closed since 2023 when the charity brought its operations onto a single site due to financial pressures.

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