Disputed plans to build a commercial gym in the back garden of a house in Hardgate will go before councillors today (Wednesday).

Caroline Jones is seeking permission from West Dunbartonshire Council (WDC) for the outbuilding to the rear of a property in Gilmour Avenue.

But while Miss Jones’s application for a “one-on-one” personal training facility has attracted 13 letters of support from the wider area, it has also sparked objections from four neighbours – and has been recommended for refusal by council planning officials.

The objectors say that the proposed gym will create excessive noise, exacerbate existing parking problems on Gilmour Avenue, and affect neighbours’ privacy.

According to a report on Miss Jones’s proposal, the objectors also say a gym has been “operating unauthorised from the applicant’s property and garden for a number of months prior to the submission of the application”.

In contrast, supporters say Miss Jones’s business supports and promotes health and wellbeing, that it will only have one client at a time and will therefore have no effect on parking, and that locating the gym in an outbuilding “will make for a more sterile and clean environment”.

The project’s backers also say it will be a more “safe, welcoming and therapeutic environment” for clients than a full-scale commercial gym, and point out that the service is in line with the expectation that more businesses will have to operate from people’s homes in future.

But council officials say the proposed facility is “not an appropriate form of development at this residential location” and recommend that planning permission should be refused.

The report says: “No site-specific locational need for the development has been established and there is a lack of justification to demonstrate that the use could not be accommodated in other more suitable, available town centre and other commercial areas.

“The site is situated in an established residential area and the commercial use, by virtue of its nature, characteristics and associated activities, will have an adverse impact upon residential amenity, and would be out of keeping and harmful to the established residential character of the area, including neighbouring residential properties.”

The application will be considered by WDC’s planning committee at a meeting to be held via video link.