How Crawley's councils license dog boarders
Every one of the eleven dog day cares, boarding kennels and home boarders listed for Crawley needs a council licence to operate: this is a legal requirement in England, not something a business can opt out of. Crawley sits across two council areas: Crawley Borough Council licenses Crawley town centre & Three Bridges and Ifield & Bewbush, while Mid Sussex District Council licenses East Grinstead, Haywards Heath and Burgess Hill.
Why no star rating is shown here
Neither council publishes its own scrapeable public register online. Both were checked through animal-licensing.uk, a third-party mirror of council licensing data, rather than through the councils' own pages. That mirror records a licence type, and sometimes a licence number and expiry date, but carries no star-rating field for either council. This is why no Crawley listing on this site shows a council licence rating, even where a current licence is confirmed below — the gap is in the data source, not a mark against any business.
Crawley Borough Council: Crawley centre and Ifield & Bewbush
Crawley Borough Council's own mirror lists only five operators across the whole borough, and neither of this page's two businesses in its area could be matched to it. Sit and Stay Sussex (Nicky's Pet Minding), in Crawley town centre & Three Bridges, is not shown as licensed on the mirror checked here. Bulldog Holidays, in Ifield & Bewbush, states a licence number on its own site (LI/12/0140/ABDOG) that could not be matched to the same mirror. Neither finding means the business is unlicensed: it means this research pass could not confirm a licence independently through a public register. Ask either business directly for its licence number and to see its current certificate before booking.
Mid Sussex District Council: East Grinstead, Haywards Heath and Burgess Hill
Seven of the nine businesses in these three areas are confirmed against Mid Sussex District Council's mirror: The Doghouse in East Grinstead; Cherry Tree Kennels & Cattery, Happy Dayz Dogs, We Love Pets Haywards Heath and The Dogfather in Haywards Heath; and Go Barking and Peppa's Pooch Playhouse in Burgess Hill. The Doghouse's own register entry had already passed its stated expiry date, 31 March 2026, as of this check in September 2026 — most likely the mirror simply has not caught up with a renewal, but ask to see a current certificate before relying on it. Vanity Fur West Hoathly, in East Grinstead, and Bonnie's House, in Haywards Heath, are not shown as licensed on the mirror checked here; Bonnie's House quotes a licence number, AW118, on its own site, but a business's own website is not itself a public register entry.
What a licence covers, and what it doesn't
A council licence confirms an inspection against England's statutory welfare standards for space, safety, record-keeping and the competence of whoever is caring for your dog. It says nothing about customer service, and on this page it comes with no star score at all, since the register mirror used here carries none for either council. Day care, home boarding and boarding kennels are three separate licence types, and a business can hold one, two or all three — Cherry Tree Kennels & Cattery, for instance, is licensed for boarding and day care, plus cats, on the same site near Balcombe.
Questions worth asking
- Which council issued the licence, and what is the licence number?
- Can I see the certificate itself, not just a number printed on a website?
- Which of day care, home boarding or boarding kennels does the licence actually cover?
- When was it last renewed, and does an expiry date shown on any paperwork still stand?
See our choosing guide for more on what to ask before you book, and our vaccinations and licences guide for questions beyond the licence itself.