ALTHOUGH I was pleased that an interview with me was included in your report 'Dairy plan is to face opposition by vegans' (February 19), I was also shocked that many of my views were left out.

I realise that you have limited column space, but I feel the article did not give a true representation of my reasons for objecting to the planning application for the Nocton "super-dairy".

I had emphasised my environmental concerns for this part of Lincolnshire, and this was not given recognition.

I also made it clear that I was born and bred in Lincolnshire, so do know the area and often walk my dogs there.

It is also a place of wildlife diversity - with barn owls, swans, herons and buzzards all being sighted there.

I have contacted the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust, as I am a member, and they are looking at the plans.

I feel the article portrayed me as being a "tree-hugging vegan radical" when I was attempting to raise the issue of the environmental damage to rural Lincolnshire.

For example, there would be road problems for Lincoln and the surrounding areas with the influx of traffic – the plans allow for up to 67 vehicles a day.

And the milk will be transported across the county and beyond to supply the milk market of the East Midlands.

I also addressed the potential pollution issues as the area falls into a groundwater source protection zone (Lincolnshire Environment Agency) and also a nitrate vulnerable zone (Defra).

Peter Willes, of Parkham Farms in Devon, is one of the owners of Nocton Dairies Ltd. In 2008, Parkham Farms was fined £9,000 for polluting a river in Devon.

The report was written by Mike Dunning from the Environment Agency and published on November 20, 2008.

The animal welfare aspect is a concern, as 8,000 cows incarcerated in barns is not a natural habitat, and it has been proved that it causes a great deal of suffering.

The plans also show staff accommodation, but if the dairy is to offer the 85 jobs to local people, then staff accommodation would not be necessary.

As most of the farms in Lincolnshire employ cheap foreign labour, one has to ask the question whether this would not be their aims on this farm.

Linda Wardale Group Coordinator, Vegan Lincs.

As someone who attended the North Kesteven District Council meeting at Nocton Village Hall on February 18, I found it difficult to recognise your subsequent report.

The overwhelming concern of the 40 to 50 people present when my wife and I were there seemed to be anxiety about the smell from 8,100 cows.

It is difficult not to see this as justified. What is proposed is industrialised agriculture on a colossal scale.

The village of Nocton can only suffer because of it. Why? The unit is only one quarter to one mile away from this popular village, with all its attractive property.

The village is directly downwind of the prevailing south westerlies.

Furthermore, the unit is without precedent in this country.

A 2,000-cow unit in Lancashire is the only parallel – at a quarter of the size.

To this extent, it is experimental and Nocton is part of the experiment.

In Idaho, USA, where regulation is tighter (no new dairies over 1,000 cows within two miles of neighbouring property), immense difficulty has been caused by the expansion of the dairy industry, over both odour and the pollution threat to groundwater.

One looks to the Environment Agency to see that standards are applied here.

With 8,100 cows providing, in human equivalent, the waste produced by a city of 160,000 people (Idaho source), the agency will need to be vigilant if the project is allowed to go ahead.

B. M. Beeby Holmfield, Fiskerton.