Background
Falck Renewables applied for five 125-m-high, 2.30 MW wind turbines to be built on Spaldington Airfield, Yorkshire. The wind farm was granted planning consent in September 2011. Since 2016, the wind farm has been generating enough electricity to meet the needs of 10,000 homes.
Scope of services
The development site was an agricultural setting with areas of woodland and scrub. RSK Biocensus carried out the ecological constraint surveys, including detailed bat surveys involving a suite of static detector and transect surveys over a period of six months.
Following on from the survey work, and to support a planning application, we
- consulted with relevant stakeholders
- completed an ecological impact assessment
- designed an avoidance/mitigation/compensation/enhancement package.
Several ecological constraints were overcome through our efforts, including
- gaining a European Protected Species licence and translocating great crested newts
- producing method statements for work affecting breeding birds, water voles and reptiles
- surveying for badgers.
Following confirmation of a preferred cable route and grid connection point for the wind farm, further ecological surveys were required, including updated great crested newt surveys and hedgerow surveys. We also supplied an Ecological Clerk of Works to provide ecological supervision during the construction phase.