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Summary.
·
Proposals
for infilling of brick quarry limited to one
option that is not considered viable under
WSCC’s West Sussex Mineral Sites
Biodiversity Action Plan.
·
Paucity
of detail in the Scoping Report, lack of
technical information on leachate seepage
prevention.
·
Impacts
of proposal on Knepp Castle Estate and Knepp
Wildland Project, as an organic farm and
wildland project closely downstream of
Laybrook, there are a number of
environmental concerns regarding short-term
(at least 40 years) and long-term adverse
impacts.
·
Water
quality, any deterioration of which has the
potential to affect fishing interests,
wildlife interests and public amenity
interests of both Knepp Wildland Project and
the wider public.
·
Leachate
seepage, how will integrity of lining be
able to prevent leachate seepage for the
many decades after landfill operation
ceases?
·
Likely
increases in Biological Oxygen Demand, apart
from hazardous chemicals, an increase in (BOD)
will affect flora and fauna downstream.
·
Droughts
and floods, climate change is resulting in
an increase in occurrence and severity of
droughts and flooding. The impacts of such
events on lining integrity and run-off have
not been addressed.
·
Effects
on the organic status of Knepp Home Farm,
advice from the Soil Association has been
sought but not yet received.
·
Impacts
on species of conservation importance and
protected species. The existing survey work
does not consider the adverse impacts the
landfill proposal would have on the barbastelle
nursery colony in The Mens SAC, or
nursery colonies of other bat species
including UKBAP soprano pipistrelles and
brown long-eared bats, which are likely to
be breeding nearby.
·
A
total of 16 UKBAP Priority
species has been recorded on site, as
well as 4 bat species, there are 11 birds
species and one other mammal, the water
vole. 60 invertebrate species of
conservation importance have also been
recorded. This gives the site a considerable
importance.
·
Impacts
on flora and fauna in general, biodiversity
over Laybrook and the adjacent countryside
likely to be adversely affected, and the
cumulative effects as identified by ESL’s
surveys should be addressed. The losses of
woodland, wetland, grassland and hedgerows
will seriously reduce the insect biomass on
which birds, bats and other species rely.
- Effects of landfill over length of time for
construction and operation; ‘short
term’ is likely to be at least 40
years, and long term for many
decades after that.
- Increased lighting levels during winter
operating hours, these will have adverse
effects on bats that forage throughout
milder weather during winter at
dusk/nightfall.
- Restoration of Laybrook Brickworks by Cory’s
4-6 million tonnes of non-inert,
domestic waste over 30+ years is totally
incompatible with the rural position of
the site and the wildlife it supports.
1. Proposals for infilling of brick quarry limited
to one option.
Any proposal
for the restoration of the Laybrook
Brickworks Quarry should consider a number
of options rather than just one, in
accordance with the West Sussex Mineral
Sites – A Biodiversity Action Plan,
published by West Sussex County Council in
2004. In this publication, landfill is not
considered to be an option “where the
water table is near the surface of the
working and there is a risk of groundwater
pollution via leachate from landfill”.
2. Inadequacy
of detail in the Scoping Report
The Scoping
report was not of the quality and depth
expected for a proposal of this magnitude.
It did not fully allow an evaluation of the
issues involved, neither did it give
reassurance that those aspects outlined
would in fact be dealt with adequately in
the Environmental Impact Assessment. For
instance, clarification is needed on
materials to be used for lining and capping,
as using clay materials as stated in the
Scoping report is understood to be
insufficient to prevent leaching over time.
3. Impacts of proposal on Knepp
Castle Estate and Knepp Wildland Project.
The
Knepp Castle Estate lies to the east of
Laybrook Brickworks and the Lay Brook runs
directly across the Estate, feeding into
Hammer Pond and subsequently into the River
Adur. The Knepp Wildland Project includes
this catchment. The Estate land has Soil
Association organic certification and the
Wildland Project is supported by a number of
organisations including Natural England, the
Environment Agency, Sussex Wildlife Trust
– and many others for which a full list
could be made available.
All
potentially adverse impacts are of very
real, concern to the Knepp Wildland Project,
as the flora and fauna of the entire stretch
of the River Adur crossing Knepp Estate
could be acutely affected and / or
chronically affected for decades into the
future.
The
Knepp Wildland Project is therefore
extremely vulnerable to any development
likely to result in adverse impacts from the
infill proposal – apart from the threats
posed to the wildlife value, these impacts
include all others arising from landfill gas
and smell, landfill leachate, noise, pest
species and so on, and the impacts on the
Knepp Estate, as well as other close
neighbours, should be fully considered.
4.
Water quality
A
full assessment of effects on water quality
and direct and indirect effects on
commercial fishery (Hammer Pond), coarse
fish & sea trout, wetland and aquatic
flora and fauna, livestock and wildlife
drinking and well-water supplies
downstream of Laybrook and on groundwater of
adjacent land during site construction,
operation and post-operation due to
increased silt and contamination due to
leachate seepage and rain water run-off.
Such
assessments should address the effects of
phosphates, nitrogenous compounds, heavy
metals, thallates, sex-disruptive hormones
etc., on aquatic flora and fauna and on
species higher up the food chain.
5.
Leachate seepage
Measures
to be taken by Cory’s Environmental to
ensure no leachate seepage during site
operation and also to ensure that landfill
liners will be effective for the many
decades following completion of infilling
with non-inert waste need to be addressed.
6.
Likely increases in BOD
An
assessment of the specific increases of
biological oxygen demand (BOD) is needed.
Organic matter entering ground water and
water courses from seepage, rain water
run-off and spillage should be included.
7.
Droughts and floods.
An
assessment of the likely impacts on water
flow and quality during summer droughts and
flooding episodes, and of the effects of
drought on lining integrity should be
included.
8.
Effects on the organic status of Knepp Home
Farm.
These are
currently unknown and advice is being sought
from the Soil Association.
9.
Impacts on species of conservation
importance and protected species.
A
number of legally protected species and
species of conservation importance are known
to occur on the adjacent Knepp Estate; such
species are also likely to occur in the
surrounding countryside especially to the
west. Even more protected species and
species of conservation importance have been
identified by ESL Ltd on behalf of Cory
Environmental, details of which are
presented in the Ecological Surveys 2007
& 2008 carried out by ESL Ltd.
9.1.
Bats
Although
the level of survey work ESL’s reports is
good overall, the bat surveys do not permit
a full ecological assessment of bat use of
the site. The surveys commissioned were
detector surveys, which do not allow the
breeding status of bats using the site to be
ascertained, neither do they allow any
identification of commuting routes of bats
from nursery roosts to foraging habitat
either on site or elsewhere. If the project
goes ahead, this could be of significant
importance because:-
i)
ESL’s Survey for
bats at the Laybrook Brickworks Quarry,
2007-2008 reliably identified eight species of bat, all
protected under the Wildlife and Countryside
Act 1981). The sex of these is unknown so it
is not possible to predict whether there are
nursery colonies on or adjacent to the site.
This means that it is also not possible to
ascertain the importance of hedgerows
identified as flightlines. Disrupting
flightlines along which bats commute from
nursery roost to foraging habitat has
serious impact on nursery colonies of many
species, including the four UKBAP species.
ii)
Species of bats
most likely to be affected by disruption of
commuting routes between nursery roosts and
foraging habitat, which may be on Laybrook
or elsewhere, are those that generally breed
close to foraging habitats and a source of
drinking water. As far as those already
recorded on Laybrook, these are common
pipistrelle, soprano pipistrelle (UKBAP
Priority) and brown long-eared bat (UKBAP
Priority). Soprano and common pipistrelles
were recorded in some numbers, indicating
nursery colonies close by.
iii)
Of further significance is the presence of
barbastelle bats recorded in ESL’s bat surveys.
This species is protected under the EU
Habitats Regulations as well as being a
UKBAP priority species. These barbastelles
are breeding females that have travelled
from the nursery colony in The Mens SAC SSSI
NNR SWT Reserve.
In
2008, a pregnant barbastelle bat was
radio-tracked from The Mens barbastelle
nursery colony across Laybrook Brickworks
and on to wet grassland and open water on
the Knepp Estate where it foraged. This bat
was one of a number of female bats
radio-tagged and tracked from The Mens in
2008 by Frank Greenaway under contract from
Sussex Wildlife Trust.
The dense, unmanaged woodland in The Mens
supports a nursery colony of at least 80
breeding female barbastelles. All of these
forage over wet grasslands, predominantly in
floodplains and other wetland features.
However, all the barbastelles commuting out
of The Mens have to do so in a north-east,
east and south-east direction, as the land
to the west of The Mens is occupied by the
Ebernoe barbastelle nursery colony and there
is no overlap between the commuting and
foraging areas of the two colonies Thus
the Laybrook Brickworks is of known
important to this nursery colony of
barbastelles and any disruption of it will
have immediate and on-going adverse impacts.
iv)
Bat Mitigation measures
Mitigation
measures in the form of bat boxes are
unlikely to be successful if foraging
habitat and flightlines are lost. Adjacent
habitat, for example the ponds to the south
of the brickworks will not function as
replacement for lost habitat, as these ponds
will already have bats foraging over them,
and bats tend to occupy discrete foraging
territories.
It
is highly likely that Natural England may
consider that a further bat survey using
methodology that tracks a representative
sample of any female bat caught on Laybrook
and radio-tagged back to nursery roosts
would be necessary, given the presence of
UKBAP species.
This will be the only way to identify
breeding roosts sites, vital hedgerow
commuting routes, and the number of bats
likely to be affected by the development.
9.2.
Water vole
A
water vole was seen on site together with
two areas where signs of water vole were
recorded. This is a UKBAP Priority species;
Natural England will need to be consulted
over any action affecting water voles and
any proposed mitigation.
9.3.
Birds
Eleven
UKBAP bird species were recorded by ESL in
2007-2008, eight of which were resident and
therefore breeding (skylark, dunnock, song
thrush, starling, house sparrow, linnet,
bullfinch and yellowhammer) and three of
which (lapwing, turtle dove and cuckoo) were
possibly breeding.
9.4.
Invertebrates
One
RDB 1 species, 1 RDB 3 species, 5 Nationally
Notable A, 14 Nationally Notable B and 39
Nationally Local invertebrates were recorded
in ESL’s invertebrate surveys, making this
site of county significance.
9.5.
Total UKBAP species
There
is thus a total of 16 UKBAP species known to
occur on the Laybrook Brickworks site; other
UK BAP species such as hedgehog, harvest
mouse and brown hare have not been recorded
– but neither have surveys been carried
out.
10.
Habitats survey
The
full implications of habitat changes and
destruction need to be assessed further.
ESL’s habitats surveys of 2007 & 2008
showed few plant species of conservation
interests, but overall there was a
considerable plant biodiversity across the
woodland, grassland, ruderal and wetland
habitats. Some of the hedgerows were ranked
as having medium biodiversity value within
the landscape.
However,
the combined value of these habitats was not
fully assessed; as stated, the ‘negative
impact of moderate local importance’ is
not considered a true picture of the losses
the development will have over its
construction and operation stages. The
combination of woodland, wetlands plus damp
grassland and woodland, ruderal vegetation
and semi-improved grassland together are
responsible not only for a significant
invertebrate diversity (565 invertebrate
species recorded), but also for the
considerable insect biomass that, together
with seeds and hedgerow fruits throughout
the year, is what supports a good avian
diversity (69 species of which 56 are likely
to be breeding) either directly or
indirectly. This insect biomass is also what
supports at least 8 species of bat.
The
effects of loss of this habitat mosaic for
many decades are likely to be severe.
Mitigation at best has limited proven
success. The proposed monitoring looks as
though Cory Environmental has given
environmental and ecological issues due
regard
but in practice, monitoring would
need to be carried out over very many
decades to cover the construction,
operation, restoration and post-completion
phase of the land-fill. There is no
guarantee that Cory Environmental would be
willing to do this – or even that the
company may last long enough for this to be
carried out.
11.
Impacts on flora and fauna.
Apart
from impacts on protected species, the
impacts in general on existing flora and
fauna need to be assessed. Overall
biodiversity changes due to:
·
Major
losses of established natural and
semi-natural habitat
·
Disturbance
during construction and operation
·
Changes
in water chemistry and quality from treated
leachate and potentially from leachate
seepage
·
Risk
of introducing invasive aliens to water
courses that would have severe impacts
downstream, especially in the Knepp Estate.
·
Increased
incidence of ragwort on disturbed ground
during construction and operation, the
occurrence of which concerns the local
equestrian / livestock interest, and the
control of which could have a further
adverse impact on invertebrates.
·
Increased
local predation on sensitive fauna from
generalist predators that would be attracted
to waste, eg gulls, corvids and rats.
12.
Effects of landfill over length of time for
construction and operation
Attention
should be given to the sum of all the
ecological assessments in the ESL Ecological
Surveys, with particular respect to the
‘short-term’ impacts. In this proposed
landfill, with a projected operating life of
30+ years, ‘short-term’ is likely to be
some 40 years. This is a considerable length
of time that, even in the absence of any
pollution from seepage, ran water run-off or
floodwater, is likely to have a considerable
negative impact on the biodiversity of the
area as a whole, and of vulnerable species
in particular.
13.
Increased lighting levels during winter
operating hours.
There
is no indication of an assessment of the
impact of any increase in lighting levels
that will have adverse effects on those bats
that forage throughout milder weather during
winter at dusk/nightfall.
14.
Finally.
Overall,
from the ecological standpoint, it is
considered that the restoration of the
Laybrook Brickworks Quarry by means of 4-6
million tonnes of non-inert waste over a
period of 30 years
·
Is
contrary to West Sussex County Council’s
Mineral Sites Biodiversity Action Plan.
·
Constitutes
a real and long-term threat to the integrity
of the biodiversity of this rural area
·
Constitutes
a serious and long-term risk to the
environment and wildlife of a large area of
the Knepp Wildland project and the River
Adur restoration project.
·
Will
have adverse impacts on all 16 UKBAP
Priority species, especially as the
‘short-term’ for this development is
likely to be 35-40 years.
This
proposed land-fill should be firmly
rejected.
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