GUNDOG handler Cliff Waite and his mother are to meet planning officials to seek a way out of the impasse which has forced him to live on the road.

Mr Waite and his 14 dogs have been travelling the countryside in a trailer since Salisbury District Council's southern area committee rejected his plans for new kennels at his bungalow in Harnham last month.

As the Journal reported, a planning wrangle lasting several years came to an end recently when Mr Waite was forced to tear down his old kennels and he was banned from keeping more than four dogs at the property, off Old Blandford Road, which belongs to his 86-year-old mother, Sylvia.

Mrs Waite has since had to cope at home on her own.

"We've had our low points," said her son, "but we know how to deal with adversity."

The pair are now being advised by a new solicitor.

Councillor Bryan Rycroft, who chairs the southern area committee, has also agreed to be at the meeting.

Mr Waite, who gives displays with his dogs at country shows, intends to submit yet another application, with the aid of expert consultants, to keep his pets on the half-acre plot.

"It's the only way we are going to resolve this issue," he said.

Meanwhile, former council chairman Hedley Farris, who has championed his cause, has asked the council to identify the officer who advised the Waites to seek retrospective permission to keep the dogs.

He believes the pair should have been told this was an established use of the property, which would not have needed permission.

Legally, they now have no right of appeal.

Speaking from his trailer on Tuesday, carpenter Mr Waite said he has been driving hundreds of miles with the dogs, entertaining crowds at events from Lincolnshire to Essex.

They are off this weekend to the Wiltshire Game and Country Show at Bowood.

"The dogs are doing fine," he said. "There was pressure in the first week, when they had to get accustomed to a new routine, and I could only walk a pair at a time.

"But they are used to travelling to shows in the summer, and are very well looked after.

"It's Just as well it's not winter!

"You have to stay positive. I won't give up doing what I love, because I see the pleasure people get from it."

• PLANNERS are to consider an application to build 13 detached houses on land in the triangle between Old Blandford Road and Coombe Road in Harnham. It is opposite Mr Waite's bungalow.

9:11am Thursday 7th August 2008

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