Equestrian use, including stabling and a yard area, is to be allowed on a field near Verwood.

Dorset Council has agreed the planning proposal for a site southeast of Horton Road at Woodlands to the west of Verwood, within the Green Belt where development is not normally allowed.

The change of use includes the retention of a shipping container, already on the site, and the building of a three-bay stable block and yard area.

The site is within the Green Belt and within 200 metres of the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty but a planning agent has argued that by siting the stables further back in the site no ‘harm’ will be done to either.

A neighbour at the nearest house, The Pound, wrote to Dorset Council to object to the proposal saying that the container was not necessary as the applicants only live a short distance away and could bring everything required for the horses daily, rather than need a storage area on the field.