Plans to turn a former rugby club into a “high quality lodge park” have been labelled a “glorified wooden village” by a farm owner who objects to the scheme.

The development, at The Waen between Rhuddlan and Rhuallt, has now been formally lodged with Denbighshire council.

The site is the former home of Rhyl Rugby Club and would be canine friendly with a “dog exercising paddock” included as part of the scheme.

Rhyl Rugby Club sold the site to the applicant, North Wales Construction Ltd, in 2018 and took up residence at its new Tynewydd Road base in Rhyl in December of that year.

The applicant plans to construct: seven timber pods, 37 timber lodges, a 24-bed bunkhouse and a leisure complex with restaurant.

The former social club would become a reception, shop selling groceries and provisions and cycle hire hub, if the idea gets the go-ahead.

Existing parking areas would be kept and new ones sited in front of the leisure building, with electric hook-ups to recharge vehicles.

Wildlife ponds and site landscaping are also promised as part of the development.

However local residents have raised objections over anticipated traffic problems and the disturbance to local agricultural life.

In one response Janet Samosa, whose farm borders the site, said it would disturb livestock and bring dogs and their owners onto the family’s land, via a public footpath.

She said: “We currently have few people using the footpath, therefore to encourage a potential 176 people (likely to have dogs) to roam through the fields would be both intrusive, potentially dangerous and detrimental to the use of our fields, ie, it would unduly affect our livelihood.

“It is a working environment and not an urban playground. The neighbouring fields have pheasant shoots during the winter and inevitably would cause concern for your guests.

“It is a ridiculously sized development for a small rural area, reducing it to a glorified wooden village.”

She also raised concerns about additional traffic in the area and disputed figures about the amount of traffic on match days, claiming it was “no more than about 30 cars maximum”.

However, the planning document supplied by the applicant actually refers to “between 800 and 1,000 car movements each week” throughout the rugby season.

A high pressure gas main traverses part of the site and the Wales and West Utilities has said no work should take place within 10m of it without consultation.

Natural Resources Wales said it couldn’t support the application if the applicants insisted on using a private system for foul water, saying it should link with a mains sewer 1.3km away.

The full application to redevelop the site should be heard at the council’s next planning meeting on November 11.