Projects Northamptonshire wind farm ornithology support

Northamptonshire wind farm ornithology support

Onshore wind

Developers

Onshore Wind England

Ornithological baseline surveys for a proposed wind farm development

Locogen is currently undertaking ornithological baseline surveys for a proposed five-turbine wind farm development in Northamptonshire. The project forms part of the environmental assessment process required to support planning and consenting for the development.

5 wind turbines

Client European developer
Status In progress

The project

The site is located within a predominantly agricultural landscape comprising arable farmland, hedgerows, grassland, and scattered woodland features that provide habitat for breeding farmland birds and foraging raptors. The surrounding environment includes habitats suitable for a range of protected and notable bird species, including breeding red kite. The ongoing ornithological survey programme includes:

Vantage point surveys;
Breeding bird surveys;
Raptor surveys; and
Consultation with the Local Planning Authority and Natural England to refine the survey scope and methodology.

Survey methodologies have been developed in accordance with recognised ornithological guidance and current best practice for onshore wind developments to ensure that baseline conditions are robustly characterised.

Our approach

Locogen is leading the delivery and coordination of all ornithological survey work, including survey design, stakeholder consultation, data review, and reporting. Survey findings are subject to internal quality assurance and technical review procedures to ensure consistency and compliance with relevant guidance.

A key challenge for the project has been ensuring that survey scope and methodologies appropriately address stakeholder requirements while remaining proportionate to the scale and environmental sensitivities of the development. Early consultation with the Local Planning Authority and Natural England has been initiated with the aim of enabling agreement on survey scope and ensure alignment with planning and ecological requirements. The need to assess both breeding bird assemblages and raptor activity within an active agricultural landscape has also required careful coordination of seasonal survey work and vantage point coverage. This has been managed through detailed survey scheduling and ongoing technical oversight.

The outcome

The survey programme is ongoing; however, the data collected to date is informing the environmental assessment process and helping to identify potential ornithological constraints and mitigation requirements at an early stage in the project design process. Ongoing stakeholder consultation and robust baseline data collection are supporting the progression of the planning application and development of proportionate mitigation measures.

Additional mitigation measures included the need for culverts at certain parts of the site to provide nature corridors, reducing habitat fragmentation and maintaining ecological connectivity across the site, and the recommendation that one field within the site is kept back for management of ground-nesting species.

Locogen delivered the required services for our client in fulfilment of the proposed survey scope, supporting the completion of
full written EcIA and BNG assessments to accompany a planning application for this development.