Non Technical Summary - Partnerships for Renewables

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Traffic and Transport – Chapter 7 continued > The northern route will facilitate the delivery of the turbine components and general site equipment and, for this reason; the northern route is the intended abnormal loads route. It is anticipated that the southern route will be used for the transfer of aggregate and ready mix concrete to the development site. Both routes will use Clissold Road to access the site and, upon reaching the main prison buildings, vehicles will route north along an improved access track and then northwest along a purpose built access track which will provide access to each of the turbine sites. The intended abnormal loads route has been subject to further assessment to identify potential sections of the route that will require highway widening works in order to facilitate the transfer of the turbine components. Three such sections, referred to as ‘pinch points’, have been identified and the following provides a brief summary of their location and mitigation works required: • Pinch Point A: Medina Wharf/Arctic Road junction – minor widening of the Arctic Road carriageway and relocation of boundary fencing and associated gate posts (upon exit from Medina Wharf). • Pinch Point B: Arctic Road/A3020 junction – reinforcement of the inside radius and widening of the carriageway into the verge area opposite the junction. Relocation of street furniture. • Pinch Point C: A3020/Clissold Road – localised widening of Clissold Road and minor footway reinforcement on the inside radius. Highway widening works at Pinch Points B and C will be permanent and subject to detailed design and liaison with the Isle of Wight Council. The detailed design of highway widening works at Pinch Point A will be temporary and subject to continued liaison with the owners of Medina Wharf. The impact of construction-related traffic on the proposed access routes has been calculated, in percentage terms, relative to the forecast background traffic in 2013 as the opening year of construction. It is predicted that there will be an increase in total traffic flows during the assessment period of: • Survey Site 1 (Northern Route) – A3020 (Newport Road): Increase in total traffic of 0.02% and increase in HGVs of 0.02% • Survey Site 2 (Southern Route) – A3020 (Medina Way): Increase in total traffic of 0.13% and increase in HGVs of 0.13% There will also be two days during the construction programme when a maximum of 154 HGV movements per day (77 in and 77 out) for turbine foundation concrete deliveries will occur. In addition 18 abnormal load deliveries are required within the 6-month construction programme. Although both these activities will have a disproportionate but temporary effect on the highway network neither will exceed the 10% threshold increase in daily traffic flow. Increases in daily traffic flow below 10% are not normally perceived by road users due to the fluctuating nature of background traffic flow. Effects on road users and adjacent residential properties are considered to be not significant and works on the highway at each of the pinch points will affect road users and adjacent properties at varying degrees but only for a relatively short time period. Since there will be some impact during the construction of the site and during the mitigation works within the highway it is appropriate to make provision for some additional management in the form of a Traffic Management Plan (TMP) to reduce the potential for effects as far as reasonably possible; this will also ensure any residual effects on highway safety are reduced. In addition to the TMP an Environmental Management Plan (EMP) will also be provided to reduce as far as possible the impacts of all abnormal load deliveries. It is considered that the local transport network would be able to absorb the additional traffic movements associated with the construction of the wind energy development and, therefore, that no significant effects would occur. Noise – Chapter 8 Hoare Lea Acoustics (HLA) was commissioned by PfR to undertake a noise impact assessment for the construction and operation of the proposed Camp Hill Wind Energy Development. Two types of noise are emitted from wind turbines. Aerodynamic noise is produced by the movement of the blades through the air often characterised as a ‘swish’ and mechanical noise can come from the components within the turbine itself such as gearboxes and mechanisms to vary the direction of the turbine. Recent progress in reducing the noise from turbines has been considerable particularly, in relation to mechanical noise. The noise assessment established the difference between wind turbine noise and the naturally occurring noise level at homes (residential properties) nearest to the proposed development and measured these against levels required by planning guidance. Government guidance for this assessment procedure is called ETSU-R-97, The Assessment and Rating of Noise from Wind Farms and specifies that noise limits should be set relative to existing background noise levels and reflect a variation in wind speeds. In general terms, during the daytime, noise from Section continues overleaf > 06
Noise – Chapter 8 continued > wind turbines needs to be no more than 5 decibels above existing background noise except where back ground noise levels are exceptionally quiet in which case permissible noise from turbines is fixed at between 35 decibels and 40 decibels. During the night time noise from turbines needs to be no more than 43 decibels or 5 decibels above background whichever is the greatest. As set out above the preferred model of the wind turbine for this site is the Vestas V90 (2MW). However, if this is not available any turbine installed will comply with the noise limits identified in the assessment. During operation noise levels from the turbines have been predicted for those locations around the site most likely to be affected by noise. Surveys have been performed to establish existing baseline noise levels at a number of these locations. Noise limits have been derived from data about the existing noise environment following the method stipulated in national planning guidance. Predicted operational noise levels have been compared to the limit values to demonstrate that turbines of the type and size which would be installed can operate within the limits so derived. Results of the noise modelling demonstrate that, during the operational phase of the development, noise from the wind turbines would be below the levels required by Government guidance (ETSU-R-97) at all residential properties both during the daytime and at night. During construction there may be noise that, at times, will be audible at the closest residential properties. This would primarily result from routine construction activities, deliveries and any piling required for the turbine foundations. Noise levels have been calculated for receiver locations closest to the areas of work and compared with guideline and baseline values. Construction noise, by its very nature, tends to be temporary and highly variable and therefore much less likely to cause an adverse effect. However, in order to ensure the protection of residential amenity, working hours and HGV deliveries would be limited and any turbine deliveries outside of this time would be agreed with the Isle of Wight Council and the Police. All construction activities would adhere to good practice set out in BS 5228. It is concluded that overall effects relating to noise generated through construction activities will be minor. The ES states that noise emissions during de-commissioning are considered to be lower than during the construction phase. Therefore de-commissioning will, in the worst case, also have a minor noise effect. The ES therefore concludes that, overall, there would be no significant noise effects from the operation of the proposed wind turbines. Landscape and Visual – Chapter 9 The Landscape and Visual Assessment (LVIA) chapter identifies and assesses the potential effects of the proposed Camp Hill Wind Energy Development and determines the significance of these effects. Landscape and visual effects are defined as follows: • Landscape effects that are changes in the fabric, character and quality of the landscape. These could include direct effects upon specific landscape elements such as the loss of a woodland or hedgerows or effects on landscape character and landscape designations; and;- • Visual effects that relate to specific changes in the character of views and the effects of those changes on visual receptors e.g. people who use of roads, Public Rights of Way and recreational facilities as well as residents. The methodology used within the LVIA takes into consideration best practice as set out in Guidelines for Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment, Second Edition (2002) published by The Landscape Institute and Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment. The LVIA methodology sets out that only levels of landscape or visual effects assessed as being of very substantial, substantial or, in some cases, moderate may be regarded as significant effects in EIA terms. Consultation was carried out through the scoping process with the Isle of Wight Council along with the Isle of Wight AONB Partnership and Natural England in order to confirm an initial ten viewpoint locations to be considered within the LVIA. The scoping response agreed to the inclusion of these viewpoints and suggested a further nine viewpoints. These suggestions were incorporated; hence the LVIA includes visualisations and analysis from nineteen viewpoints including three on the mainland. For the fifteen closest viewpoints baseline panoramic photographs, wire line representations and photomontages have been generated to be used as a tool to demonstrate how the proposed turbines may appear. In line with emerging best practice and experience only wire line representations were produced for the five most distant viewpoints. In selecting the study area for the LVIA reference was made to ‘Visual Representation of Windfarms, Good Practice Guidance, Scottish Natural Heritage 2006’. However, initial studies undertaken during the scoping study strongly indicated that a reduced study area would be more appropriate given the island location and the small number of turbines proposed. Hence study areas have been adopted as below: • 1km from either of the two proposed turbines for visual assessment of individual residential properties; Section continues overleaf > 07
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Non Technical Summary - Partnerships for Renewables

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