The two opposing camps in the battle over proposed hunt kennels in Chewton Mendip are stepping up their campaigns as the consultation period comes to an end.

With comments on the application for a kennels due by next Thursday, the Mendip Farmers Hunt has been leafleting houses in the village and has placed its case on the hunt website, while the anti-kennel group has also taken to the internet to spread its message and has collected a petition against the kennels plan with hundreds of signatures.

A heated meeting at Chewton Mendip Village Hall last week saw the villagers attending firmly rejecting the proposals.

The anti-kennel campaign has had just a few weeks to prepare its case, and their website www.stopchewtonken nels.co.uk tell residents how to protest, details of the application and lists the objectors concerns, from traffic movements and the risks of overdevelopment of the countryside to the impact on wildlife.

They provide photographs of the site, regular updates and links to future meetings.

But supporters say that without the kennels the future of the hunt, which has ridden on the Mendips since Napoleonic times, is at stake.

Their leaflet claims that without the kennels many traditions are at risk, including hunt meets, farmers dances, the annual point-to-point and the hunt skittles league all hang in the balance.

And they say that their fallen stock service, which currently provides the collection of dead farm animals that are unfit for human consumption, would finish, with the hounds sent to separate hunt kennels.

The leaflet attacks the oppositions concerns over the kennels, saying that the hounds do not howl, that the kennels will handle five tonnes of fallen stock a week, and will not produce excessive light pollution. They deny suggestions that dog faeces will be spread on local farmland.

The site at Dudwell Lane lies in Emborough parish and the parish council was due to hold a meeting of its own on Wednesday night both pro and anti kennel campaigners were expected to attend.

Chewton Mendip Parish Council is expected to hold a meeting of its own planning committee on Monday night.

Mendip district councillor Tom Killen has said that the application will almost certainly go before Mendip's planning board for a final decision, but this was unlikely to happen before the end of August.