North Kesteven District Council have received an application (10/1397/FUL), to build a Factory Farm (CAFO) from Nocton Dairies Limited. Nocton Dairies want to build a USA industrialised style CAFO, which would be the largest "dairy" unit in Western Europe, less than 2 miles from four large rural communities and four local primary schools. The four villages, Nocton, Dunston, Potterhanworth and Metheringham have a population exceeding 4000. The location chosen is in a protected zone directly above the vulnerable principle Lincolnshire Limestone aquifer which supplies drinking water to hundreds of thousands of people in Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire. "We, the undersigned, earnestly request the Planning Committee of North Kesteven District Council to refuse planning permission for the Nocton Dairies' proposal to build a 3770 cow super dairy on land at Nocton Heath. We believe that this industrial scale dairy unit poses too many threats to our environment, particularly our fragile limestone aquifer over which it would be situated, and to the public health of local residents. We do not feel that there is adequate infrastructure locally to support a dairy of this. We also have serious concerns about the proposed unit's financial viability and sustainability. We do not believe that this represents the correct way forward for the dairy industry and consider that development of large-scale units will seriously damage many existing small, family-owned dairy farmers struggling to make a living and who are stewards of our wonderful countryside."
There are currently 666 signatures for this petition: