A WOMAN is seeking planning permission to build a number of enclosures in her garden to house her pet monkeys.

The unusual request has been made to East Dorset District Council.

The applicant, Dawn Groom, has had to leave her home in Maidenhead and relocate to Slough House in Horton.

She wants to build six pine log cabins with connecting enclosures for her pet Capuchins, cotton-top tamarins, squirrel monkeys, and ring-tailed lemurs.

In the planning application submitted to the council, Mrs Groom’s agent, John Andrews, states she is a “long-time owner of her private collection of primates”.

However, she is making the move to Dorset due to upcoming roadworks on the M4 motorway, which have involved the compulsory purchase of part of her garden by Highways England.

“The major works on the M4 junction are programmed to start in January 2019 but preliminary works are due to commence in November this year,” he said.

“…In the interests of the health and welfare of the primates, as well as their safety, veterinary advice is that the need to relocate the primates is urgent.

“It is as a result of the most unwelcome dilemma above and the resultant anguish forced upon Mrs Groom and her family that has resulted in the current application.”

A letter from Highways England states the monkey enclosures will need to be removed from their current location by October 31 - otherwise the M4 scheme will be delayed.

The proposed cabins at Slough House, which would have a maximum height of three metres, would be largely screened by trees and hedges.

However, a Knobs Crook resident commenting on the application has expressed concerns over noise from the monkeys.

“Although we are a distance apart noise carries in rural areas as there are no obstructions to buffer the sounds. I am very concerned about the noise levels of what, after all, are wild animals.

“However well they are looked after, handled or tamed their natural noise would be the same,” Debra Senior said.

She also asked about the number of monkeys that would be kept in the enclosures and whether more would be bred as this is not mentioned in the planning application.

Knowlton Parish Council, which was consulted about the plans, has not raised any objections but said its members were “conscious that potential noise should not be disturbing to neighbours”.

Although in Britain it is legal to keep monkeys as pets under licence, organisations such as the RSPCA, along with primate experts, have long called for a ban on the practice.