How Bath and north-east Somerset's councils license dog boarders
Home boarding, day care and boarding kennels are all licensed activities in England, and Bath and north-east Somerset sits across two licensing authorities: Bath and North East Somerset Council (BANES) for Bath city centre and Widcombe, Bath south and Combe Down, and Radstock, Midsomer Norton and Paulton; and Wiltshire Council for Bradford-on-Avon.
BANES: a public mirror register
BANES does not run its own searchable register directly, but its licensed operators are listed on a third-party mirror, animal-licensing.uk, giving a licence number and expiry date for each. Ten of the thirteen BANES-area businesses listed here were matched against that mirror and show a confirmed council licence block on their own page. Three BANES-area businesses — Dog and Cat Care, Woodborough Gardens Kennels & Cattery and Bella Boarding — could not be matched to a confirmed mirror entry for this research, so no licence block is shown for them; ask to see their current licence certificate when you call, rather than assuming either way.
Wiltshire Council: register not accessible
Bradford-on-Avon's listing, WestWoofs, is licensed by Wiltshire Council rather than BANES. Wiltshire's own online register and both of its published PDF registers could not be opened for this research; all three returned an automated block rather than usable data. WestWoofs is shown here on the strength of its own published licence claim, not a confirmed register match. If you want to check a Bradford-on-Avon licence directly, Wiltshire Council's licensing team can be asked by phone or email.
What a licence covers, and what a star rating means
A licence is issued to a named person or company at a specific address, for a specific activity — home boarding, day care and boarding kennels are licensed separately, even where one business holds more than one. Under England's rules, a licence also carries a 1-to-5 star rating from the council's own inspection, tied to how long the licence runs: a lower star rating means a shorter licence, a higher one a longer one. A star rating is a council inspection score, not a customer review; this guide does not quote individual scores here since a rating can change between inspections, so ask the business directly for its current rating and licence expiry if it matters to your decision.
What this means for you
A confirmed council licence block on a listing means this research matched the business against a register directly. Its absence does not mean a business is unlicensed — it can mean the register could not be checked, as with Wiltshire Council here, or that no confirmed match was found this round. Either way, asking to see a current licence certificate before you book costs nothing and is the only way to be certain.