DEFIANT dog breeder Jenny Manley has thrown down the gauntlet to New Forest District Council and demanded that it should let the public know how much it spent on taking her to court.

She has posted notices on the garden gate of her "Howling dog kennels'' off the Fawley Road at Hythe claiming that the council spent £20,000 to £25,000 on its action.

Her case began at New Forest Magistrates' Court, when she appealed against the council's noise abatement notice aimed at stopping her Siberian huskies from barking and disturbing people living in neighbouring properties.

Next stop was Southampton Crown Court and Mrs Manley was ordered to close down her operation. But she claimed a mistake had been made, took the case to the High Court and the order was quashed. Now she is asking the council to disclose how much it spent on the legal procedures. She said: "They asked for £2,600 in the magistrates' court and for nearly £8,000 at Southampton Crown Court and I would think they spent over £10,000 in going to the High Court."

Having eventually won the legal battle, Mrs Manley is also claiming her own costs of £10,274 from the council.

She pointed out: "We have been very careful and we used trainee solicitors where possible to keep the costs down."

But Bob Merrett, the council's head of environmental health, said: "We are not in a position to comment on the figures that have been claimed."

He stressed that the council had a duty to take action once complaints of noise nuisance had been claimed.

"As far as the council is concerned, there was a nuisance and we would have been failing in our duties had we not taken action," he said.

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