Galloper Wind Farm Project - National Infrastructure Planning

2890_mitigation
16
August 2011
Galloper Wind Farm Substation
4.4. Sizewell Wents wood
Part of the landform will be planted with new woodland to enclose the substation and
extend Sizewell Wents. The woodland and woodland edge will be of a width of
approximately 35m on the southern, western and northern sides as shown on the
drawings. The woodland will not be located close to the substation compound to avoid
trees overhanging it in the long term and to protect the stability of a new cut slope
formed by lowering the substation platform. This unplanted area will evolve, through
natural colonisation and management, into a naturalistic woodland edge / grassland
habitat for the benefit of wildlife.
The outside woodland edge will contain a proportion of open grassland to provide a
varied and naturalistic edge that will have biodiversity benefits (notably for reptiles).
The areas of Sizewell Wents woodland proposed for removal and planting, shown on
drawing 2890/07H, are as follows:
Existing area of the woodland 3.32ha
Area of woodland to be removed to 1.61ha
construct substation
New area of woodland to be planted 2.78ha
adjoining Sizewell Wents (including
woodland core and woodland edge with
open grassland on outside edge)
Total proposed size of Sizewell Wents 4.49ha
woodland
This will enlarge Sizewell Wents by 1.17ha, an increase of approximately 35%.
In addition, further areas of scrub and woodland would be planted outside Sizewell
Wents, as shown on drawing 2890/07H.
4.5. Cable corridors, cable sealing compounds and gantries
Three cable corridors are shown on drawing 2890/07H. The corridor containing cables
connecting to the offshore wind farm (south) will be 23m wide and the landform can
extend across this but tree planting cannot. Shallow rooted shrub species will be
planted over this corridor where the new landform rises to a minimum of 4m above
the existing ground level. This will leave a localised gap in the woodland screening.
Two narrower export corridors (15 to 19m wide) lie to the north and south. These will
be routed to minimise loss of existing trees. New trees and shrubs cannot be planted on
these corridors.