AQW 1673/22-27

Miss Nuala McAllister
Alliance Party
North Belfast

Tabled Date: 16/06/2022
Answered On Date: 04/03/2025
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Education when will the appointments to the Board of Governors for Hazelwood Integrated Primary School be made.

Revised Answer:

The impact of hedge removal has been considered as part of the overall A5 environmental assessment process.

The main two environmental topic areas reported in the Environmental Statement that consider the removal of hedgerows are ‘Landscape and Visual’ (which is presented in Chapter 8 of the Environmental Statement Addendum 2022) and ‘Ecology and Nature Conservation’ (in Chapter 9).

From a landscape perspective, removal of hedgerows is considered in terms of the effect on landscape character and on visual receptors such as properties or those passing through the landscape. The incorporation of appropriate embedded landscape mitigation has formed an integral part of the assessment process in seeking to reduce the overall impact of the project. Such measures include the extensive planting of new boundary hedgerows throughout the scheme as part of an overall landscape strategy.

From an ecological perspective, the effect on hedgerow removal was assessed both in terms of loss of vegetation and also how wildlife may be affected.

The planting scheme takes into account these impacts in developing mitigation measures, for example the provision of tree, scrub, hedgerows and grassland planting helps mitigate for the loss of suitable bat foraging habitat.

These mitigation measures are presented in Figure 5.2 (Environmental Mitigation and Landscaping Strategy) of the Environmental Statement Addendum 2022.