We are asking the National Grid to examine an alternative route for cable linking Suffolk and Kent due to fears that decisions are based on the cheapest cost rather than minimising cost to wildlife at Pegwell Bay.
Sandwich and Pegwell Bay is a haven for wildlife, designated as internationally important and protected by UK law. However, the area and sites around it are under threat. Learn more about the impacts in this blog.
May 5th 2026
The Sea Link Examination has now officially closed, marking a major milestone in our Rethink Sea Link campaign.
Over the past three years, this has grown into one of the most significant campaign and advocacy efforts the Trust has undertaken. Our Planning & Policy team has reviewed hundreds of technical reports, plans and supporting documents, working through complex environmental, engineering and policy detail to ensure nature has been properly considered. In total, Kent Wildlife Trust responded to 26 consultation and Examination deadlines, producing over 190 pages of detailed written submissions.
Kent Wildlife Trust has played an active role throughout Sea Link’s Examination, taking part in eight days of hearings and maintaining a consistent presence to ensure wildlife and habitats were represented at every stage. Our evidence-led approach meant the Examining Authority regularly sought our input on key ecological issues, recognising the credibility of our work and professional judgement throughout this process.
Most importantly, thousands of people stood up for nature. More than 6,000 people registered as Interested Parties for Sea Link, the highest ever level of public participation for a Development Consent Order.
Thank you to everyone who took the time to get involved, submit comments and support the campaign. Your voices have been vital in ensuring that the impacts on wildlife and habitats could not be ignored.
With the Examination now closed, the process moves into its final stages. The Examining Authority has three months to review all the evidence and prepare a Recommendation Report for the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, Ed Miliband. He will then have a further three months to make the final decision, which is expected in November 2026.
The Examination may be closed, but Kent Wildlife Trust remains fully committed to protecting the wildlife and habitats at risk from Sea Link.
We will continue to advocate strongly for the protection of Pegwell Bay and Minster Marshes, two incredibly important and sensitive sites for wildlife. This is especially critical right now, as Sandwich and Pegwell Bay National Nature Reserve is in recovery following a recent fire. At a time when these habitats are already under pressure, it is more important than ever that they are given the protection they need to recover and thrive.
Through our Nature Nightmares Appeal, we are supporting the recovery of our nature reserves that have been damaged by antisocial and criminal behaviour, helping restore these precious places and protect them for the future.
Whilst the formal Examination process may have ended, our commitment to securing the best possible outcome for nature remains unchanged. No matter the final outcome, with the help of Save Minster Marshes, RSPB, CPRE Kent and all Interested Parties, we have helped raise the bar, ensuring that nature has had a strong, informed voice throughout, and that better outcomes for wildlife are at the heart of decision-making.
Pegwell Bay is a fragile ecosystem that supports an extraordinary diversity of wildlife. It is a landscape shaped over centuries, and one that simply cannot be recreated elsewhere. Over the past three years we’ve worked tirelessly to ensure that the impacts on wildlife and habitats have been properly scrutinised, and that the right protections are in place to safeguard this living, breathing ecosystem for future generations. The wildlife that depends on these habitats today must continue to have a home here in the future, in a landscape that remains wild and resilient. We hope that Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, recognises the critical importance of these habitats as natural carbon stores, and that decisions taken in the name of net zero do not undermine the very ecosystems that are essential to achieving it.Emma Waller, Senior Planning & Policy Officer and Rethink Sea Link lead
A coalition of conservation organisations and local campaign groups – including Kent Wildlife Trust, Suffolk Energy Action Solutions, CPRE Kent, Save Minster Marshes, the Seal Research Trust, British Divers Marine Life Rescue, the Suffolk Preservation Society, Walberswick Against Lion Link, Saxmundham Against Needless Destruction and Sir Roger Gale MP Herne Bay and Sandwich – have formally written to the Examining Authority requesting that National Grid’s Sea Link Development Consent Order (DCO) application be withdrawn, citing serious legal, procedural, and environmental failings.
Our response outlines these concerns:
Our asks:
Those wishing to support the Rethink Sea Link Campaign can email Secretary of State, Ed Miliband via [email protected]
Points to consider raising:
Throughout the Rethink Sea Link Campaign, we have shared several resources which can be found below:
Read our initial consultation response
Guidance for responding to a DCO
Read our Relevant Representation
The third round of Sea Link hearings, held from 24th - 27th March, mark another important moment for communities and environmental advocates to have their voices heard. Throughout the hearings, our Planning & Policy Team have been speaking up for nature, highlighting concerns about impacts on seals, the loss of important habitat for birds, and the potential damage to vulnerable environments such as saltmarsh.
These hearings have provided a valuable opportunity to present evidence and help shape the ongoing Examination process, ensuring that the project’s environmental impacts are fully and carefully scrutinised.
The team recently wrapped up three intense days at the second round of examination hearings for the Sea Link project.
Our Planning and Policy Officer Emma Waller, who is leading on all things Rethink Sea Link for Kent Wildlife Trust, attended virtually, and made verbal representations on relevant agenda items for nature, voicing our concerns.
Key environmental organisations and authorities were also required to submit final responses to questions raised during the recent hearings by February 10th 2026. Emma Waller says, "We want to see full transparency, robust evidence and proper consideration of alternatives so that internationally protected sites are not put at risk unnecessarily. Pegwell Bay and Minster Marshes are too important, too fragile and too valuable to Kent’s ecological resilience to be treated as expendable.”
On the same day, Sir Roger Gale, MP for Herne Bay and Sandwich with West Thanet, questioned the Secretary of State about Sea Link's impact in the House of Commons. Watch the video here.
Kent Wildlife Trust submitted our Written Representation on National Grid’s Sea Link proposal which you can find here.
We’re incredibly proud to say that over 6,000 Relevant Representations were submitted at the earlier stage - the highest number ever recorded for ANY DCO application to date. This is an extraordinary show of people standing up for nature. Now imagine if we matched that record with Written Representations too.
Imagine thousands of voices telling National Grid and the Planning Inspectorate that Pegwell Bay and Minster Marshes are too important to sacrifice, that they must Rethink Sea Link.
The proposed Sea Link is officially in the examination stage of the DCO process.
This week, our Planning Officer, Emma Waller, spoke at both the Issue-specific and Open Floor hearings to make our concerns about the project heard and to urge National Grid to Rethink Sea Link alongside other campaign groups like Save Minster Marshes.
The fight to protect Minster Marshes and Pegwell Bay isn’t over yet. The next key stage in the Examination process is the submission of Written Representations by registered Interested Parties, which are due by November 18th.
If you're an Interested Party, this is your opportunity to have your views formally considered by the Examining Authority. If you want to make your voice heard, we’ve created a simple Guidance Document explaining how to take part in the DCO process and submit your comments effectively.
A coalition of conservation organisations and local campaign groups – including Kent Wildlife Trust, Suffolk Energy Action Solutions, CPRE Kent, Save Minster Marshes, the Seal Research Trust, British Divers Marine Life Rescue, the Suffolk Preservation Society, Walberswick Against Lion Link, Saxmundham Against Needless Destruction and Sir Roger Gale MP Herne Bay and Sandwich – have formally written to the Examining Authority requesting that National Grid’s Sea Link Development Consent Order (DCO) application be withdrawn, citing serious legal, procedural, and environmental failings.
Only those who have registered as an interested party can continue to comment on the planning process. The deadline for registrations as an interested party is August 18th 2025.
When registering as an interested party, you need to submit a Relevant Representation, summarising your concerns of the project. You can read our own Relevant Representation below.
Kent Wildlife Trust is encouraging people to register as an interested party and stand up for nature after the Planning Inspectorate accepted the application for development consent for the Sea Link Project, an environmentally harmful scheme which will impact East Kent.
Kent Wildlife Trust has confirmed the presence of critically endangered European eels (Anguilla anguilla) within Minster Marshes, a site currently under threat from National Grid's proposed Sea Link project. The charity says the discovery highlights the marshes' ecological significance and amplifies concerns regarding the potential environmental impact of the development.
National Grid's Revised Sea Link Plans are under limited consultation until 12 Jan 2025. Updated plans for the Sea Link project, affecting wildlife at Pegwell Bay SSSI and Minster Marshes, were unveiled in late November following feedback from the summer consultation.
Despite widespread condemnation of their plans, their proposals have not changed substantially, and they still intend to build a 28-metre high, 90,000 square meter (9 hectares) electricity converter station on Minster Marshes adjacent to a protected SSSI wildlife site. The cable will come onshore through Pegwell Bay nature reserve which has SSSI, RAMSAR, SAC and National Nature Reserve status.
National Grid have quietly opened a further consultation period on these revisions which closes on 12 January 2025, but did not publicly announce it and only requested feedback from ‘affected persons with an interest in the land’ which they define very narrowly. Save Minster Marshes, the grassroots campaign set up to oppose National Grid’s plans, believes that they should consult all stakeholders who are impacted by their proposals.
Recently National Grid announced that Ofgem has approved the installation of the Nautilus interconnector at the Isle of Grain.
This pilot project will connect the UK with offshore wind farms based in Belgian waters and will use existing energy infrastructure with a converter station on the Isle of Grain. The project was initially rejected by Ofgem in July 2024 but in November the decision was reversed.
The Isle of Grain is potentially a less environmentally impactive route for offshore electricity cable than the current National Grid Sea Link Proposal, which conservationists say will impact wildlife populations at Pegwell Bay, a Site of Special Scientific Interest and the Local Wildlife Site of Minster Marshes.
You have likely heard of habitat fragmentation – the process of larger, connected areas of habitat becoming segmented and dispersed because of human development, infrastructure, and natural processes. But functionally linked land, as a term, is arguably its lesser known counterpart.
In this blog, we explored the impacts of disrupting functionally linked land and how that relates to Pegwell Bay and Minster Marshes.
Newly elected MP Polly Billington has said she is concerned about the lack of transparency demonstrated by National Grid.
Conservationists at Kent Wildlife Trusts are encouraging people to comment on National Grid’s plans to install an electricity cable linking Kent to Suffolk and making landfall at Pegwell Bay, an internationally important conservation site for wildlife in Ramsgate.
National Grid reopened their consultation after making amendments to their plans and people have until 11th August to put forward their views.
In episode 9 of Talk on the Wild Side, Rob Smith speaks to Sir Roger Gale, MP for North Thanet and Deputy Speaker, about why the National Grid need to Rethink Sea Link. If we don't hold them to account, he warns, we would be "failing our future generations."
Sir Roger Gale added he has no confidence or trust in National Grid whatsoever as he calls for full ecological surveys to be carried out before plans for offshore cable are passed.
In episode 8 of Talk on the Wild Side, Rob Smith interviews George Cooper - a Thanet local with a passion for wildlife, who has been heavily involved in bird recording and ringing at Minster Marshes for many years. They talk about why Minster Marshes is so important for bird-life, the damage National Grid's Sea Link project will do to the area, and why he started the Save Minster Marshes campaign.
In this guest blog, Nik Mitchell of Save Minster Marshes offers his perspective about the Sea Link Project and reflects on the wildlife in the area and how it could be impacted.
Conservationists ask National Grid to examine alternative route for cable linking Suffolk and Kent due to fears that decisions are based on the cheapest cost rather than minimising cost to wildlife at “internationally important” National Nature Reserve.
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Rob Smith joins Kent Wildlife Trust's Nina Jones, Steve Weeks, and Emma Waller, as well as Save Minster Marshes' Nik Mitchell, to talk about National Grid's Sea Link plans - a cable, converter, and sub stations that could have devastating impacts on these…
The UK Government has launched an attack on nature, weakening the laws that protect our wildlife and making a U-turn on manifesto promises to be the greenest Government ever.
