Mynydd y Gwair Wind Farm - RWE.com

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Mynydd y Gwair Wind Farm
9.6.28 Access controls in the form of locked gates and ditches will be employed to discourage any
increase in inappropriate vehicular access to the common occasioned by the construction of
the access road and internal service tracks. Successful prevention of unsanctioned use of the
track network should ensure incidents are no more common than they are at present.
9.6.29 The main sources of potential impacts on receptors from the operating wind farm therefore
concern the potential effects of turbines on aerial fauna. Birds are dealt with in Chapter 10
(Avian) and bats are addressed below.
9.6.30 In general, wind farms on upland sites such as Mynydd y Gwair have a lower potential to
have significant effects on resident bat populations than wind farms sited in other habitats in
Britain by simple virtue of the more limited usage of such upland habitats by bats. The bat
surveys carried out support this view, with bat activity generally concentrated in habitats at the
periphery of the Main Study Area (and well away from the wind farm site).
9.6.31 Bats may be more likely to traverse across upland areas when making post-breeding
migratory movements. Studies in the US (e.g. Keeley et al 2001, Higgins et al 2007) have
indicated that it is when undertaking such movements that bats may be particularly
susceptible to collision with wind turbines, and post construction monitoring by Bioscan at a
lowland wind farm site (Coldham in Cambridgeshire) also found collision fatalities of bats to
be concentrated in the late summer period which is consistent with post-breeding migratory
movements.
9.6.32 The UK bat fauna does not include any species associated with the types of mass migration
notable amongst some species in the United States. Smaller scale migrations evidently occur,
but the available evidence suggests this is likely to be focused on features such as river
valleys. In the US, wind farms sited on or near forested ridges have caused the largest
fatalities of bats associated with migratory movements. At Mynydd y Gwair there are no such
conditions: the local forestry does not extend over ridge tops in the wind farm area.
9.6.33 The evidence from the baseline studies and from experience elsewhere therefore suggests
that the risk of bat fatalities arising from collisions with the proposed wind turbines at Mynydd
y Gwair is intrinsically low, and furthermore that the risk of any collision fatalities having
population-level consequences for any of the species confirmed as using the site is negligible
(confidence: near certain).
9.6.34 No significant effects on other fauna, including open country species such as brown hare, and
uncommon or scarce invertebrates, are anticipated during the operational phase.
9.7 Mitigation and Monitoring
Construction Phase Mitigation
9.7.1 Appropriate mitigation measures to reduce the magnitude of identified effects on protected
species and other ecological resources are contained within the draft Construction Method
Statement submitted at Appendix 4.2. The full detail will be subject to agreement with the
planning authority and relevant consultees at the post-consent stage, and as informed by any
further monitoring studies recommended, but the main measures to reduce ecological
impacts over and above those taken as part of the design process are as follows:
Any works to trees affected or potentially affected by the access route construction works