New 132kV Overhead Line Connection from Llandinam Wind Farm to Welshpool Substation Addendum to December 2009 Environmental Statement Non-Technical Summary December 2010 Table of Contents Preface 1 1.0 Introduction 3 1.1 Additional Information 3 1.2 Amended Development 3 2.0 Post Application Consultee Feedback 4 2.1 Background 4 3.0 Feedback Response & Amended Development 5 3.1 Review of Alternative Schemes 5 3.2 Cumulative Review 5 3.3 The Amended Development 5 4.0 Landscape & Visual 7 4.1 Background 7 4.2 Additional Information 7 4.3 Amended Development 7 4.4 Mitigation & Residual Effects 8 5.0 Ecology 9 5.1 Background 9 5.2 Review of the December 2009 ES in Respect of Dormice 9 5.3 Additional Hedgerow Information 9 5.4 SPEN’s Response to CCW’s Comments 9 5.5 Amended Development 10 6.0 Cultural Heritage 11 6.1 Background 11 6.2 Additional Information 11 6.3 Amended Development 11 7.0 Cumulative Review 13 7.1 Landscape Character 13 7.2 Visual 13 7.3 Ecology 13 7.4 Cultural heritage 13 8.0 Draft Environmental Plan 15 132kV Overhead Line Connection from Llandinam Wind Farm to Welshpool Substation - Addendum to December 2009 ES non-technical summary Preface 1 In December 2009, SP Energy Networks (SPEN) 9 Copies of the documents are available for public submitted an application under section 37 (s37) of the viewing at the following locations: Electricity Act 1989 to the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change. The application was for consent Council Offices: to install a new 132kV overhead line connection over Planning Services a distance of 35km and within a 100m corridor from Powys County Council Llandinam wind farm to Welshpool substation as Neuadd Maldwyn shown in Figure 1. The application was accompanied Severn Road by an Environmental Statement in December 2009 Welshpool (December 2009 ES), including Technical Appendices, Powys Viewpoints and Confidential Ecology Reports. SY21 7AS 2 Following submission of the December 2009 ES, Libraries: supplementary environmental information (hereafter Welshpool Library referred to as ‘the Addendum’) to the ES has been Brook Street prepared, which sets out additional information in Welshpool respect of the following: SY21 7PH ¤ Post application feedback Newtown Library ¤ Completed dormouse survey Park Lane 3 The Addendum also refers to Amended Development. Newtown This includes two sections of overhead line where it is SY16 1EJ proposed to move the corridor outside of the 100m corridor, which is the subject of the s37 application. 10 Representations are invited in writing within the specified period from the publication date of the Notice 4 This Non-Technical Summary forms part of the in the local and national publications advertising the Addendum that is being submitted to the Secretary of submission of the information. Representations should State for Energy and Climate Change. be dated and returned to: 5 The scope of the Addendum, which has been prepared Secretary of State for Department of Energy and Climate by the same specialist team as the December 2009 ES, Change was agreed through consultation with Powys County Section 37 Consents Team Council (Powys CC) and other consultees. WHP 3A Whitehall Place 6 The ES comprises the following documents: London SW1A 2AW ¤ The Non-Technical Summary (this document) ¤ The Addendum to the December 2009 Environmental Statement (principal document) 7 The Non-Technical Summary has been produced to give a summary of each of the technical chapters in the ES. 8 Further copies of the Non-Technical Summary are available free of charge. Additional paper copies of the main ES report are available at a charge of £50 (plus postage and packing) or £10 for an electronic version onVD D in PDF format. Copies may be obtained by writing to: Environmental Planning SP Manweb (Registered Office) 3 Prenton Way Prenton CH43 3ET Or, by e-mailing: [email protected] 132kV Overhead Line Connection from Llandinam Wind Farm to Welshpool Substation - Addendum to December 2009 ES 1 Plan 1 - Bryn-picca Plan 2 Plan 2 - Forden Plan 1 Figure 1 Key: Amended Development NTS Reproduced from the Ordnance Survey map with the permission of Ordnance Survey® on behalf of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office,© Crown copyright Licence No. EL273112 2 132kV Overhead Line Connection from Llandinam Wind Farm to Welshpool Substation - Addendum to December 2009 ES non-technical summary 1.0 Introduction 11 This Non-Technical Summary (NTS) summarises the 17 Because these sections lie outside the 100m corridor, Addendum to the December 2009 ES for the overhead they have been subject to formal Environmental Impact line connection between Llandinam wind farm and the Assessment (EIA) and reported on in the Addendum. Welshpool substation. 18 The approach and methodology adopted for the 1.1 Additional Information assessment of the Amended Development remains unchanged from that presented in the December 12 The Addendum has been prepared to provide 2009 ES and is in accordance with the Electricity additional information with respect to the following: Works (Environmental Impact Assessment) (England and Wales) Regulations 2000 (EIA Regulations) as Post Application Consultee Feedback amended. SPEN’s proposed changes and intention 13 Following submission of the s37 application, SPEN to prepare this ES Addendum were discussed with received comments from local communities and Powys CC, the Countryside Council for Wales (CCW), statutory consultees in respect of certain matters Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) referred to in the December 2009 ES. The local and the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG). community comments raised in this feedback are documented in a separate Application Consultation Scoping Feedback Report published in July 2010 (a copy of 19 Chapter 2.0 of the December 2009 ES sets out which is included in Appendix A of the Addendum) the scoping and consultation process, which was and are summarised in Chapter 2.0 of the Addendum, undertaken as part of the original EIA. The key topic together with the statutory consultee comments areas, which are addressed in the Addendum, are landscape and visual, ecology and cultural heritage as Completed Dormouse Survey these are the issues considered by SPEN most likely to 14 As explained in the December 2009 ES, at the time give rise to significant effects. of application, SPEN was awaiting the results of 20 Due to the nature of an overhead line, all significant the supplementary dormouse survey. This survey effects identified are likely to be adverse. information is included in Chapter 5.0 of the Addendum. SPEN acknowledges that the survey results relate to Approach to Mitigation the original scheme and has therefore supplemented the 2009/2010 information with a walkover survey of the 21 As with the overall project, mitigation was considered amended scheme described below. an intrinsic part of the overall design strategy of the overhead line, not just ‘add-on’ measures to reduce 1.2 Amended Development significant environmental effects. The approach has been firstly to avoid any significant effects through the 15 Since submission of the application for the s37 design and routeing of the overhead line and secondly consent, the overhead line design has been subject to reduce any identified effects by altering and refining to amendments arising from ground surveys and the proposed route through micrositing of poles and discussions with landowners. These have resulted in appropriate construction methods. minor changes to the indicative pole positions shown on the submitted drawings, with 44 poles having 22 The Draft Construction Method Statement for the moved more than 10m and a number of poles having scheme setting out construction procedures to be moved less than 10m. These changes all lie inside the adhered to by the contractor has been updated to 100m corridor, which was the subject of the application reflect the Amended Development. A draft of this for s37 consent and are therefore not discussed further document is included in Appendix C of the Addendum. in the Addendum. 23 The Draft Environmental Management Plan setting out 16 Other design amendments have resulted in two SPEN’s mitigation proposals has also been updated sections of the route now lying outside the 100m wide to include the Amended Development. This includes corridor as shown in Figure 1: additional measures being proposed by SPEN to mitigate for minor effects, which are not significant. ¤ Forden - between poles 45 to 63 over a distance These include tree replacements (two new for each of 1.7km with the outside edge of the proposed tree lost), shrub and hedgerow planting and the other corridor moving a maximum of 300m east. measures to enhance biodiversity. A draft of this ¤ Bryn-picca - between poles 360 to 371 over a document is included in Chapter 8.0 of the Addendum. distance of 900m with the corridor moving a maximum of 90m south. SPEN refers to these corridor changes as the Amended Development. 132kV Overhead Line Connection from Llandinam Wind Farm to Welshpool Substation - Addendum to December 2009 ES 3 2.0 Post Application Consultee Feedback 2.1 Background 24 The application attracted comments from statutory consultees, local community groups and members of the public. Local Community Comments 25 Approximately 60 comments, covering a range of issues, were received from the local community. A summary of these and SPEN’s response to them is provided in Chapter 2.0 of the Addendum and set out more fully in the July 2010 Consultation Feedback Report (a copy of which is included in Appendix A of the Addendum). 26 The key issues raised by the local community are: ¤ A request for a review of alternative 132kV overhead line connection options, in the light of SPEN’s and National Grid Electricity Transmission’s (NGET’s) progress in bringing forward proposals to connect the additional Mid Wales wind farms in TAN8 areas SSA B and SSA C to the electricity network.