KWT staff holding up 'Rethink Sea Link' signs outside Houses of Parliament.

Time is running out to tell National Grid to "Rethink Sea Link"

The following is a press release, produced by the Save Minster Marshes Campaign Group and endorsed by Kent Wildlife Trust.

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. 

Their plans still include using the former hoverport as an access route to Pegwell Bay, despite Thanet District Council refusing them permission. They have also moved the mitigation area to a new field 3 miles away, opposite Discovery Park industrial estate in Sandwich. This is entirely unsuitable – it is not functionally connected to Pegwell Bay, is not marshland and is surrounded by industry on all sides. In short, it is a sop and will provide no ecological mitigation to the devastation National Grid’s cable and convertor station will cause.

Save Minster Marshes urges National Grid (a private company which made £4.8bn profit in the last financial year) to rethink Sea Link and relocate the infrastructure for the grid upgrade. Options include brownfield sites on the Isle of Grain or Kingsnorth which are also closer to where power is needed, or reexamining the SL1 route that comes onshore between Richborough and Dungeness and is closer to the Sellindge substation. 

Our campaign has always been strongly supported by Sir Roger Gale, MP for Herne Bay and Sandwich, and we are delighted to see that East Thanet’s new MP, Polly Billington, has come out strongly in support too. 

In an email to a constituent this week, Ms Billington said, “I am campaigning hard to get National Grid to rethink the Sea Link project … I am concerned about the potential for this project to cause irreversible damage to nature in Pegwell Bay and Minster Marshes. The bay is home to Kent’s largest population of seals while the marshes provide a vital habitat for a variety of protected species such as the golden plover, beavers, and water vole. This is a vital wildlife corridor and nationally important ecosystem that we risk disrupting at our peril.”

Save Minster Marshes founder, George Cooper, said, “Having our local council and both local MPs speaking out about National Grid’s plans to devastate this precious habitat is so important to stopping this planned development in its tracks. We do still need everyone to continue to write to National Grid and key people who will have an influence on the final decision before this consultation period ends on 12th January. We’ll be sharing a list of who to contact and ideas of what to say later on this week in our Save Minster Marshes Facebook group and on our website. Please join our group and like and follow our new Save Minster Marshes Campaign page for the latest updates.”

We are also delighted to be working closely with Kent Wildlife Trust in asking National Grid to think again.

Emma Waller, Planning and Policy Officer, Kent Wildlife Trust said: “There appear to be several options for Sea Link, yet the current plans will cause significant disturbance to wildlife at a site with multiple statutory conservation designations that should be protected. This includes Minster Marshes, the proposed converter and substation site, which has been identified as functionally linked land, providing important foraging and roosting grounds for bird species at Pegwell Bay. Once this wildlife is lost, it is gone forever, so we would strongly urge National Grid to 'Rethink Sea Link' and consider the other options available.  

“We support renewable energy, but not at the cost to wildlife, particularly when the habitats at risk of the project, such as the mudflats and saltmarsh, are already supporting us to mitigate climate change by acting as natural carbon sinks.”