Cautious welcome

Launch aborted

Super-dairy farmers 'considering their options' after withdrawing proposal

'PLANS for a controversial super dairy at a village near Lincoln have been put out to pasture.'

http://www.thisislincolnshire.co.uk/news/Super-dairy-plans-turn-sour-proposal-gets-withdrawn/article-3234408-detail/article.html

Nocton concedes defeat in mega-dairy bid

'Nocton Dairies has thrown in the towel over its plans to create the UK’s biggest cowherd.'

http://www.thegrocer.co.uk/articles.aspx?page=articles&ID=216024

Plans for super-dairy with 4,000 cows are axed after 'battery farming' row

'Plans for a controversial ‘battery cow’ farm holding almost 4,000 cattle have been scrapped.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1357657/Plans-super-dairy-4-000-cows-axed-battery-farming-row.html

Plans for UK's largest dairy farm scrapped over water pollution fears

'Controversial dairy farm in village of Nocton generated heavy opposition from local residents, animal welfare and environmental groups who feared it could lead to wave of US-style mega-dairies.'

http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_round_up/774744/plans_for_uks_largest_dairy_farm_scrapped_over_water_pollution_fears.html

'Superdairy' plan shelved over pollution concerns

'Plans for the biggest dairy farm in western Europe have been withdrawn following an outcry from local and national campaigners.'

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/news/superdairy-plan-shelved-over-pollution-concerns-2217145.html

Planners would have rejected Nocton application

'Council officers, who reviewed the application after it was resubmitted in December, were ‘minded’ to recommend to committee members that they rejects the application on six grounds, also covering odour, noise and the threat to wildlife, as well as the risk to groundwater, the council said.'

http://www.farmersguardian.com/home/latest-news/planners-would-have-rejected-nocton-application/37253.article

Nocton failure sparks mixed reaction

'The failure of a proposed 3770-cow super dairy in Lincolnshire has prompted contrasting reaction from animal welfare campaigners and farm industry leaders.'

http://www.fwi.co.uk/Articles/2011/02/17/125552/Nocton-failure-sparks-mixed-reaction.htm

Where do we go from here?

Common sense has finally prevailed, thank goodness... and the plans for the Nocton Dairy have been pulled at the last hour.  But considering Mr Willes' tenacity and history of withdrawing planning applications, many local villagers are left wondering 'What next?'.

Certainly there are questions that need to be answered, not least about the digestate pipeline... which in itself does not stand up to scrutiny, although there was a hint in the application about it being used for irrigation water too.

Talking to local residents who worked the land on Nocton Estate before Messrs Willes and Barnes came along, they are adamant there are already good pipes for the pumping of irrigation water to the Heath from the current reservoir, so why is this new pipeline even necessary?

I can see why an extra reservoir may be useful to store greater quantities of water in case of drought and perhaps it would be churlish to refuse this application, just on the grounds that the main dairy application has been withdrawn.  That said, we really do need to understand how all this may fit into any future plan by Nocton Dairies, so that we can study the potential impacts on our locality and more importantly environment and water resources.

North Kesteven District Council are now left with a potential planning committee meeting scheduled for 8th March, which may or may not still go ahead.  We are left with the following questions:

• Is the 8th March meeting of the full Planning Committee still going to consider applications 10/1522/FUL (Digestate Pipeline) and 11/0059/FUL (Reservoir)?
• If not, will these now be relegated to just the Eastgate or Lafford Committees?
• If rearranged, what are the revised scheduled dates for these Hearings?

Where does this leave your local blogger... well I have decided I'm not going away... and this blog will continue to exist, not just as a historical record of the Nocton Dairies' saga, but I will continue to report on anything I find of interest.  I have a gut feeling my campaigning days will not be over with Nocton Dairies Ltd remaining at the helm of the Nocton Estate!  For the time-being however, there may not be a daily entry... but hey, we'll see how it goes.

Where does this leave our dairy farmers... well the dairy industry could make a good start by guaranteeing our hard-working farmers 50% of the retail price charged for milk.  This would perhaps start to reverse the trend of decline of our small dairy farms who are the wonderful stewards of our countryside.
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