Highways Agency

A428 Caxton Common to Hardwick Improvement

8.0 Environmental Impact Assessment

Environmental Statement

8.1 The Highways Agency has compiled an Environmental Statement (ES) (Deposit Document No. 11) and a Non Technical Summary leaflet (NTS) (Deposit Document No. 12) in accordance with Council Directive 85/337/EEC (Deposit Document No. 27) (as amended by Council Directive 97/11/EC) as applied by section 105A of the Highways Act 1980, as amended by the Highways (Assessment of Environmental Effects) Regulations 1999 (Deposit Document No. 28). The ES and NTS were published and put on deposit at the same time as the draft Orders. The ES summarises the findings of an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) undertaken on the proposed improvement which was then further summarised in the NTS leaflet.

8.2 Supporting technical studies were undertaken for the EIA covering the relevant environmental topics as follows:

• Air Quality (Deposit Document No. 13)
• Cultural Heritage (Deposit Document No. 14)
• Disruption Due to Construction
• Ecology and Nature Conservation (Deposit Document No. 15)
• Landscape Effects (Deposit Document No. 16)
• Land Use (Deposit Document No. 17)
• Traffic Noise and Vibration (Deposit Document No. 18)
• Pedestrians, Equestrians and Community Effects
• Vehicle Travellers
• Water Quality and Drainage (Deposit Document No. 19)
• Geology and Soils
• Policies and Plans (Deposit Document No. 20)

8.3 Detailed assessments reports were produced for each of these subject areas except Disruption due to Construction, Pedestrians, Equestrians and Community Effects, Vehicle Travellers and Geology and Soils. The report of assessment work for these four subject areas is given in full in Volume 1 of the ES and therefore no separate detailed documents have been produced.

8.4 All assessments have been carried out on the basis that the Scheme has already been constructed. The particular effects of any road scheme, such as traffic and predicted noise levels, need to be evaluated over a number of years from an assumed date of opening. For the purposes of the ES, the opening year of the Scheme is assumed to be 2006 and a design year, 15 years later, is 2021. The following paragraphs are a summary of the assessments set out in detail in the reports. The Appraisal Summary Table is attached in the Appendix.

Air Quality

8.5 The Local Air Quality Assessment shows that the concentrations of most pollutants considered will reduce in the future. Construction of the Scheme would improve the air quality locally over that expected without the Scheme, and improvements to the A14 would bring further benefits. All the results, both with and without the Scheme, are within the Air Quality Objectives except at Two Pots House Farm, where Nitrogen Dioxide emissions are calculated to exceed Air Quality Standards in both present and future scenarios if the Scheme is not built.

8.6 Generalised and Regional Air Quality calculations show that there will be an increase in air pollution with the Scheme compared to the no scheme situation. This is because the benefits gained by releasing the local congestion on the road, are outweighed by the higher traffic flows and speeds possible on a dual carriageway compared to the existing single carriageway. Part of this increase in flows will be due to the Cambourne Development. However, due to more stringent legislation, emissions from vehicles will reduce in future years.

Cultural Heritage

8.7 No designated sites (Scheduled Monuments, Listed Buildings etc.) will be directly impacted by the Scheme, although there will be a beneficial environmental effect on the setting of a Grade II Listed milepost.

8.8 The proposals will have a direct impact upon a number of (non-designated) archaeological sites, which will result in one substantial, three slight and nine uncertain adverse environmental effects. In addition, the desk-based assessment has identified a moderate to high potential for unrecorded prehistoric and Roman archaeology along the entire length of the Scheme. Four hedgerows of potential historic interest will be impacted.

8.9 Further evaluation of the known sites and areas of possible archaeology would be undertaken nearer construction, comprising a two-stage strategy of non-intrusive survey (fieldwalking) followed by intrusive evaluation (archaeological trial trenches). It is expected that adverse impacts could be removed by appropriate mitigation resulting in a neutral overall effect.

Disruption Due to Construction

8.10 Despite the mitigation measures, it is likely that some adverse noise and dust nuisance impacts would be temporarily experienced at properties close to the site during construction of the Scheme. The Environmental Management Plan and Traffic Management Plan would keep other temporary construction impacts of the Scheme to a minimum during the construction period. Adequate post-construction reinstatement, combined with the above measures would help to keep any permanent impact of the Scheme due to construction as neutral.

Ecology and Nature Conservation

8.11 No designated or non-designated sites of conservation interest would be directly affected by the Scheme. Species directly affected by the route would be locally interesting plants, breeding birds and two protected species.

8.12 The direct impact of the loss of mature hedgerows, trees, small areas of secondary woodland and road verges together with the temporary loss of hedgerows linking habitat features and the impact on protected species, are all assessed as being minor adverse in the short term.

8.13 The construction of the Scheme would have a short term impact on the biological resource of the area. In the long term the extension of wood and scrub habitat in the area and re-establishment of the hedgerow network would adequately mitigate for this short term loss. Habitat diversity would be increased by the inclusion of new habitats, as targeted in the local and Highways Agency Biodiversity Action Plans. (Deposit Document 78)

8.14 The Scheme has been designed to achieve a betterment of existing habitats in the long term and to contribute to the local biodiversity, as targeted in the Biodiversity Action Plans. The overall assessment of residual impact in the long term (at Year 15) is minor adverse.

Landscape Effects

8.15 The Scheme would have an adverse effect on existing vegetation. In particular a significant part of Knapwell Plantation and the southern fringe of Whitepits Plantation, both Tree Preservation Order woodlands, would be removed as a result of the Scheme. An element of the Area of Best Landscape and a small part of the Green Belt would be encroached by the Scheme and there would be landtake and severance of agricultural land.

8.16 The extensive planting proposed as part of the Scheme, comprising substantial blocks and belts of woodland planting and broad hedgerow planting, would make a positive contribution and partly mitigate adverse landscape effects. The overall assessment for landscape effects is considered to be slight adverse.

8.17 Visual impacts for the Scheme range from slight beneficial to substantial adverse. Where adverse effects occur these are in most instances reduced significantly in severity in the longer term by the proposed mitigation planting.

Land Use

8.18 The farming in the area is dominated by arable cropping. The fields are typically large to accommodate the modern machinery typical of such cropping. All the farms affected by the Scheme carry out large-scale arable farming.

8.19 The Scheme would not involve any landtake of land used by the community or the demolition of any property and, other than Cambourne, no development land would be affected by the construction works.

8.20 The principal impact would be on the agricultural properties that border the existing A428 road. 50.2 ha of farmland would be permanently lost due to the Scheme and associated landscaping and 7.2 ha of farmland would be severed by the new road but not required for road construction.

8.21 The impact of the Scheme on all but one of the farm holdings would be relatively minor, generally resulting in a small loss of Grade 3 arable farmland. In the case of Scotland Farm the impact would be more significant as it would result in a large landtake and would also cause some land to become severed from the main holding.

Traffic Noise and Vibration

8.22 Due to the low density of properties, noise mitigation measures would generally not be required throughout the Scheme area. Mitigation to 17 isolated properties to the west of Hardwick junction would be likely to be achieved by secondary glazing. The number of properties in the Hardwick area to the eastern end of the Scheme, and the predicted noise levels, suggest that noise mitigation measures, in the form of environmental barriers, would be required in this area.

Pedestrians, Equestrians and Community Effects

8.23 By retaining the existing A428 as a local road and grade separating existing intersections, a decrease in severance could be achieved through a reduction in traffic on local routes. This would allow communities easier and safer access to each other and to local facilities and would promote the increased and safe use of the local road for pedestrians, cyclists and equestrians. Opportunities would exist for the development of a larger and conjoined network of cycle routes, footpaths, and bridleways.

Vehicle Travellers

8.24 The Stage 3 Assessment of "view from the road" and "driver stress" shows that there would be an intermittent view from the proposed route along the entirety of the Scheme and that driver stress along the proposed route would be moderate to low.

Water Quality and Drainage

8.25 The detailed risk assessment indicates that risk of accidental spillage would be low. The constraints placed upon the discharge of surface water by the Environment Agency requires provision of balancing ponds which would allow heavy metals such as copper and zinc, which are already at a low level, to settle out in the ponds before the runoff was discharged.

8.26 The first watercourse having a 'General Quality Assessment' classification which would receive surface water runoff from the Scheme is the River Great Ouse. Due to the presence of balancing ponds within the Scheme, the majority of any pollution in the runoff would have already settled from solution and the classification of the River Great Ouse would therefore remain unchanged.

Geology and Soils

8.27 There are no designated sites or areas of particular interest that would be affected by the Scheme which require special consideration with regard to geology and soils. The impact on soils is only in terms of landtake.

Policies and Plans

8.28 The provision of the Scheme would have a beneficial impact on national, regional and local policies relating to the improvement of the road network. Development of the local road would provide a route for buses and cyclists as well as general local traffic and this would have a beneficial impact on policies aimed at promoting bus transport and cycling.

8.29 Part of the area crossed by the Scheme is designated as Area of Best Landscape and Green Belt in both the Structure Plan and Local Plan. The Scheme would have an adverse impact on policies relating to these designations due to its direct land take and the introduction of lighting at junctions.

8.30 The Scheme would result in the removal of some areas of woodland and other trees and hedgerows and sever some ditches. The Scheme would therefore have an impact on national, regional and local policies relating to the protection of the landscape, vegetation and wildlife habitats. Set against this however is the fact that an extensive amount of new woodland and hedgerow planting would be carried out as part of the Scheme.

8.31 The Scheme would involve the encroachment of some of the best and most versatile agricultural land and would therefore have an adverse effect on national and regional policies aiming to protect such land.

8.32 It is considered that adverse effects on the archaeological resource caused by the Scheme would be limited and the impact on policies aimed at protecting the archaeological resource would therefore be slight. The Scheme would have no impact on Conservation Areas in the area.

8.33 It is considered that the overall impact of the Scheme on policies and plans would be neutral.