A27 Arundel Bypass Consultation Response
A27 7.2 Arundel Bypass Report on public consultation Appendix D Appendix Spring 2018 Appendix D7.2 – Stakeholder responses Community groups (part 2) www.arundelbypass.co.uk 6 November 2017 Attached is ABNC Evidence Section D, which completes our A27 Arundel Bypass consultation response. Thank you for agreeing to accept this evidence section by 6 November due to its dependence on work by traffic consultants RGP, who awaited information from yourselves, and by Gerald Eve LLP. The evidence consists of three reports, D1, D2 and D3. All three reports throw into question the Benefit Cost Ratio given by Highways England for Option 5A and show that this should be recalculated with a much higher cost and much less benefit. Section D1: Faulty Benefit Cost Calculations for Option 5A on Mitigation, Compensation and Biodiversity Offsetting As regards biodiversity, only the mitigation costs for the loss of Ancient Woodland appear to have been included in Highways England’s calculation of Benefit Cost Ratios. However, the loss of biodiversity from Option 5A is even greater than for Option 3, as is shown by the comparative table of impacts on habitats and species at ABNC Evidence C1. Irreplaceable habitats which would be lost include wet woodland, a chalk stream, lowland fen communities, and veteran trees. All are Habitats of Principal Importance under the NERC Act 2006. A list of 12 necessary mitigation measures is given in this section. Since these habitats are irreplaceable, as well as mitigation, compensation measures would be needed for Option 5A, such as planting large areas of new native woodland, for instance on farm fields made unusable by Option 5A.
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