High Speed Two Phase 2b ww.hs2.org.uk October 2018 Working Draft Environmental Statement High Speed Rail (Crewe to Manchester and West Midlands to Leeds) Working Draft Environmental Statement Volume 2: Community Area report | Volume 2 | MA01 MA01: Hough to Walley’s Green High Speed Two (HS2) Limited Two Snowhill, Snow Hill Queensway, Birmingham B4 6GA Freephone: 08081 434 434 Minicom: 08081 456 472 Email: [email protected] H4 hs2.org.uk October 2018 High Speed Rail (Crewe to Manchester and West Midlands to Leeds) Working Draft Environmental Statement Volume 2: Community Area report MA01: Hough to Walley’s Green H4 hs2.org.uk High Speed Two (HS2) Limited has been tasked by the Department for Transport (DfT) with managing the delivery of a new national high speed rail network. It is a non-departmental public body wholly owned by the DfT. High Speed Two (HS2) Limited, Two Snowhill Snow Hill Queensway Birmingham B4 6GA Telephone: 08081 434 434 General email enquiries: [email protected] Website: www.hs2.org.uk A report prepared for High Speed Two (HS2) Limited: High Speed Two (HS2) Limited has actively considered the needs of blind and partially sighted people in accessing this document. The text will be made available in full on the HS2 website. The text may be freely downloaded and translated by individuals or organisations for conversion into other accessible formats. If you have other needs in this regard please contact High Speed Two (HS2) Limited. © High Speed Two (HS2) Limited, 2018, except where otherwise stated. Copyright in the typographical arrangement rests with High Speed Two (HS2) Limited. This information is licensed under the Open Government Licence v2.0. 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High Speed Rail (Crewe to Manchester and West Midlands to Leeds) Working Draft Environmental Statement Volume 2: MA01 Contents Preface v Structure of the HS2 Phase 2b working draft Environmental Statement vi 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Introduction to HS2 1 1.2 Purpose of this report 3 1.3 Structure of this report 3 2 Overview of the area and description of the Proposed Scheme 6 2.1 Overview of the area 6 2.2 Description of the Proposed Scheme 12 2.3 Construction of the Proposed Scheme 18 2.4 Operation of the Proposed Scheme 37 2.5 Route section alternatives 38 3 Stakeholder engagement and consultation 39 3.1 Introduction 39 3.2 Key stages of Phase 2b engagement and consultation 39 3.3 Informing the Proposed Scheme 40 3.4 Engagement and consultation with stakeholder groups 40 4 Agriculture, forestry and soils 45 4.1 Introduction 45 4.2 Scope, assumptions and limitations 45 4.3 Environmental baseline 46 4.4 Effects arising during construction 53 4.5 Effects arising from operation 61 5 Air quality 63 5.1 Introduction 63 5.2 Scope, assumptions and limitations 63 5.3 Environmental baseline 64 5.4 Effects arising during construction 65 i High Speed Rail (Crewe to Manchester and West Midlands to Leeds) Working Draft Environmental Statement Volume 2: MA01 5.5 Effects arising from operation 67 6 Community 69 6.1 Introduction 69 6.2 Scope, assumptions and limitations 69 6.3 Environmental baseline 70 6.4 Effects arising during construction 72 6.5 Effects arising from operation 75 7 Ecology and biodiversity 77 7.1 Introduction 77 7.2 Scope, assumptions and limitations 77 7.3 Environmental baseline 77 7.4 Effects arising during construction 84 7.5 Effects arising during operation 92 8 Health 94 8.1 Introduction 94 8.2 Scope, assumptions and limitations 94 8.3 Environmental baseline 95 8.4 Effects arising during construction 97 8.5 Effects arising from operation 103 9 Historic environment 105 9.1 Introduction 105 9.2 Scope, assumptions and limitations 105 9.3 Environmental baseline 107 9.4 Effects arising during construction 110 9.5 Effects arising from operation 112 10 Land quality 114 10.1 Introduction 114 10.2 Scope, assumptions and limitations 114 10.3 Environmental baseline 115 10.4 Effects arising during construction 124 10.5 Effects arising from operation 132 11 Landscape and visual 134 11.1 Introduction 134 11.2 Scope, assumptions and limitations 134 11.3 Environmental baseline 135 11.4 Temporary effects arising during construction 139 11.5 Permanent effects arising from operation 144 12 Socio-economics 149 12.1 Introduction 149 12.2 Scope, assumptions and limitations 149 ii High Speed Rail (Crewe to Manchester and West Midlands to Leeds) Working Draft Environmental Statement Volume 2: MA01 12.3 Environmental baseline 149 12.4 Effects arising during construction 152 12.5 Effects arising from operation 154 13 Sound, noise and vibration 156 13.1 Introduction 156 13.2 Scope, assumptions and limitations 157 13.3 Environmental baseline 157 13.4 Effects arising during construction 158 13.5 Effects arising from operation 162 14 Traffic and transport 167 14.1 Introduction 167 14.2 Scope, assumptions and limitations 167 14.3 Environmental baseline 168 14.4 Effects arising during construction 170 14.5 Effects arising from operation 175 15 Water resources and flood risk 178 15.1 Introduction 178 15.2 Scope, assumptions and limitations 178 15.3 Environmental baseline 179 15.4 Effects arising during construction 186 15.5 Effects arising from operation 193 16 References 195 List of figures Figure 1: Structure of the working draft Environmental Statement ix Figure 2: The HS2 Phase 2b route and community areas 2 Figure 3: Community area context map 7 Figure 4: Location of construction compounds in the Hough to Walley’s Green area 23 Figure 5: Construction compounds for civil engineering works 26 Figure 6: Construction compounds for railway systems works 27 Figure 7: Indicative construction programme between 2023 and 2033 34 Figure 8: Business sector composition in the CEC area and the North West, 150 Figure 9: Employment by industrial sector in the CEC area and the North West, 151 iii High Speed Rail (Crewe to Manchester and West Midlands to Leeds) Working Draft Environmental Statement Volume 2: MA01 List of tables Table 1: Demolitions required as a result of the works to be managed from the Crewe tunnel north main compound 28 Table 2: Demolitions required as a result of the works to be managed from the Cowley Way vent shaft satellite compound 32 Table 3: Mechanisms and timeline of stakeholder engagement since route announcement 39 Table 4: Engagement to date with community stakeholders 41 Table 5: Engagement to date with local authorities and parish councils 42 Table 6: Summary of characteristics of holdings 52 Table 7: Summary of temporary effects on holdings from construction 57 Table 8: Summary of permanent effects on holdings from construction 59 Table 9: Species potentially relevant to the assessment within the Hough to Walley’s Green area 82 Table 10: Residual significant effects on ecological resources/features during construction 92 Table 11: Residual significant effects on ecological resources/features during operation 93 Table 12: Summary of the geology underlying the land quality study area 116 Table 13: Current and historical landfill sites located in the study area 119 Table 14: Current and historical mining, mineral sites and colliery spoil sites located in the study area 119 Table 15: Current and historical industrial sites located in the study area 120 Table 16: Summary of sensitive receptors 123 Table 17: Summary of baseline CSM for sites which may pose a contaminative risk for the Proposed Scheme 126 Table 18: Summary of effects for mining and mineral resources 131 Table 19: Summary of significantly affected LCAs 138 Table 20: Construction phase potentially significant visual effects 142 Table 21: Operation phase significant visual effects 146 Table 22: Surface water body receptors 180 Table 23: Summary of geology and hydrogeology in the study area 182 Table 24: River flood risk sources and receptors 185 Table 25: Surface water flood risk sources and receptors 186 iv High Speed Rail (Crewe to Manchester and West Midlands to Leeds) Working Draft Environmental Statement Volume 2: MA01 Preface The working draft Environmental Statement This report forms part of Volume 2 of the working draft Environmental Statement (ES) for Phase 2b of High Speed Two (HS2). The purpose of the working draft ES is to provide the public and other stakeholders with an opportunity to review and comment on preliminary environmental information for Phase 2b of HS2, which is based on a stage in the ongoing design development and environmental assessment process. Nothing included at this stage is intended to limit the form of the final scheme that will be presented in the hybrid Bill and formal ES in light of further scheme development and the ongoing discussions with stakeholders such as Transport for the North and Midlands Connect. Consultation on the working draft ES is being undertaken to help inform the ongoing design and environmental assessment in advance of producing a statutory formal ES. The formal ES will accompany the deposit of the hybrid Bill for Phase 2b of HS2. Phase 2b comprises the section of the proposed HS2 rail network, from Crewe to Manchester (and a connection onto the West Coast Main Line (WCML)) (the western leg), and from the West Midlands to Leeds (and a connection onto, and part electrification of, the Midland Main Line (MML) and a connection onto the East Coast Main Line (ECML)) via the East Midlands and South Yorkshire (the eastern leg).