‘I have absolutely no confidence in or trust in National Grid whatsoever’

Providing power: ‘we have to find the right way – not the cheapest, nastiest way’

Sir Roger Gale has said he has no confidence or trust in National Grid and has called for full ecological surveys to be carried out before plans for the contentious Sea Link project in east Kent are progressed.

Sir Roger, MP for Thanet North, says the proposal is “unthinkable to anybody with half an eye on the environment and half a care about nature”.

He was speaking on Kent Wildlife Trust’s Talk on the Wild Side podcast, released on Friday, March 29. It was recorded when members of the trust’s group, calling on National Grid to Rethink Sea Link, took their campaign to Parliament.

Since its launch in December, CPRE Kent, the RSPB, Bird Wise East Kent and Save Minster Marshes have joined the Rethink Sea Link campaign over fears that the installation of an electricity cable between Kent and Suffolk will significantly impact wildlife at the internationally important Pegwell Bay nature reserve and surrounding wildlife sites such as Minster Marshes.

The groups all say they support renewable energy but not at the cost to wildlife. Sir Roger has now added his support to the campaign.

Speaking from Westminster to presenter KWT’s Rob Smith, the MP said: “I think the prospect of dozens of acres of land being taken to build a converter station that is the size of at least two football pitches and 90ft high is quite appalling.

“On that landscape, it will stick out like a sore thumb. It will be absolutely hideous. The cables that flow from that up towards Canterbury will provide an additional wildlife hazard for birds, additional to the line of cables that’s already there and has already done damage. And it just is unthinkable to anybody with half an eye on the environment and half a care about nature.

“But it seems to me that they’re blundering ahead because they know best. Well, I’m sorry, they don’t know best. And our children and our grandchildren are going to pay the most terrible price for very short-termism.”

When questioned about plans for National Grid to mitigate the impacts on wildlife, Sir Roger did not hold back his disdain for the multi-million-pound company, which has failed to mitigate previous developments at Pegwell Bay, causing damage to the saltmarsh in 2018 when installing the Nemo Link cable.

He said: “I have absolutely no confidence in or trust in National Grid whatsoever. Seems to me that the claims that they have made are, at best, disingenuous.

“They say they’ve looked at alternatives. Well, they may have looked at them, but they haven’t looked at them or studied them thoroughly, in my view. In this case, Kingsnorth is an obvious option. The Dutch offshore their infrastructure for projects such as this and do it very successfully. If the Dutch can do it, we can do it.”

The MP, who is the only parliamentary holder of the RSPCA’s Richard Martin award, went on to say he had attempted to raise the matter with Claire Coutinho, Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, but she had refused to take his call. He says the matter should be taken to judicial review if approved.

Sir Roger continued: “We can stick a spoke in the front wheel of the National Grid. I think we have to be prepared to take this, if necessary, to judicial review.  I think that National Grid have to understand that they will be held to account, every step of the way, and that we will fight this to the last ditch.

“In this case, almost literally, because if we don’t, we’re failing our future generations. We’re custodians. We don’t own this land. We’re caretakers. We have to preserve it for the future. And I don’t think that doing that and providing power to keep the lights on is incompatible.

“I’m sure it can be done, and we have to find the right way of doing it. Not the cheapest, nastiest way of doing it.”

KWT’s Natasha Aidinyantz, who co-produces Talk on the Wild Side, said: “We have produced a series of interviews for Talk on the Wild Side highlighting concerns around the Sea Link project from a cross-section of the community and now the local MP as well.

“We have invited National Grid to come on the show and present their view, which they initially agreed to, but several months on they have ghosted us. It’s a shame as we do try to cover all viewpoints with controversial topics like this. “Our offer remains open to come and have a chat to Rob about their proposals.”

The trust’s planning and policy officer, Emma Waller, said: “We are hugely disappointed to see that nature is yet again not valued and are asking the National Grid to review the strategic alternative routes and their impacts on the environment to choose the least damaging route. In short, we want the National Grid to Rethink Sea Link.

“We have already experienced the impacts of trenching at Pegwell Bay, when in 2018 the National Grid, in partnership with Belgian Elia Group, installed the Nemo Link electricity cable. Like Sea Link, trenchless techniques were the preferred method of installation – however, commitments were reneged and open-cut trenching techniques were used, resulting in irreparable damage to the saltmarsh and marine habitats. We are concerned that the mistakes of the past will be repeated.”

• To learn more about Sea Link, click here