Sea Link: do you want to contribute to third round of consultation?

Chosen site is desperately poor for wildlife and people alike

The campaign to save Minster marshes and Pegwell Bay from the ravages of National Grid’s proposed Sea Link scheme has been kept in the spotlight with two public meetings.

CPRE Kent has been involved with the campaign from the start and we were present among an impressive turnout of some 120 people at Minster village hall on Wednesday, July 17, for an event hosted by Save Minster Marshes, while the following week (Thursday, July 26) the focus turned to Cliffsend village hall.

Thanet conservationist Nik Mitchell gave the main presentation at Minster, showing the changes that had already occurred in the area and highlighting how National Grid now planned to use the former hoverport site at Pegwell as a construction compound for the project.

Meanwhile, a wind turbine next to the former Richborough power station that held roosting bats and breeding ravens had been dismantled, with a nature reserve set up as mitigation for a previous development lost. To no one’s great surprise, wildlife had suffered a poor deal, even if National Grid was promising a 15 per cent BNG (Biodiversity Net Gain) and 11-hectare mitigation site in its Sea Link plans.

The audience was told that Thanet District Council had already granted planning permission for a battery-storage site next to a nearby Site of Special Scientific Interest, while a solar farm had likewise been approved, with yet another in the offing.

The demonstrable scale of change in such an important stretch of land for wildlife was eyewatering and many present were aware of the damage caused already by the Nemo Link power cable between Kent and Belgium from which Pegwell Bay (a National Nature Reserve!) had yet to recover.

The proposed converter station on Minster marshes would be in an area prone to flooding (the clue might just be in the name!), so National Grid’s revised plans entailed raising the base on which it would sit, meaning it would reach a height of 28 metres rather than the 26 previously mooted. There would also be 20-metre-deep concrete pillars to stabilise the land, again highlighting how unsuitable the site is.

George Cooper, who has done so much to get the campaign up and running, also spoke at the meeting, estimating that 360,000 tons of hardcore would be needed to build up the converter station site.

And the new pylons across the River Stour? Underground, as we had hoped? Not a bit of it! They were to be increased in height to 50 metres, apparently to avoid bird strike. One for the experts to discuss, we suspect.

And there is indeed much to discuss: the potential flooding pressure downstream on Sandwich and its surrounds caused by building over the marshes, which of course would normally soak up water; noise pollution affecting bats and owls; polluted run-off from the intended development; the new pylons running perpendicular to the current line and creating a death trap for migrating birds; the associated EMF (electric and magnetic fields); public footpaths being closed for four years… the list went on and on.

It is all too evident that the chosen site is desperately poor for the natural environment and people alike, but for campaigners the lack of alternative, less damaging, options remains one of the main weaknesses of the proposals. They say National Grid‘s failure to explore other sites – or at least put them in the public domain – is not acceptable.

National Grid had reportedly explored a Sizewell to Sellindge link but ruled it out, while apparently the pylons at Dungeness were not robust enough to deal with the added load. Either way, several at the meeting noted that the lack of shared data from National Grid was an issue in itself. Just one of many…

• The third, non-statutory, round of consultation on Sea Link ends on Sunday, August 11. National Grid says “All feedback on our emerging proposals for Sea Link is welcomed”, so do please do take part in the consultation if you are in any way concerned by either emailing contact@sealink.nationalgrid.com or writing to Freepost SEA LINK. For help in how you might like to give that feedback, click here  
• Save Minster Marshes might yet have to launch a legal challenge in its efforts to save this special part of the world. If you would like to contribute, please click here
•  To learn more about Sea Link, click here