Sea Link: we make final submission to examination of this damaging project

CPRE Kent have made a final statement to the examination of National Grid’s application for a Development Consent Order allowing it to progress its Sea Link scheme between Kent and Suffolk.

We have serious reservations about the examination process, which has been very far from participant-friendly, but the essential point remains that the Kent case for Sea Link remains deeply and fundamentally flawed.

It is still difficult to even comprehend the notion that Pegwell Bay and Minster Marshes could be considered an acceptable location for the substantial development proposed by NG.

Further, avoidance of these environmental treasures has never genuinely been considered by NG, while far too much depends on matters being dealt with after a potential consent from the Planning Inspectorate rather than through the examination.

The last matter is highlighted by the situation regarding NG’s Nemo Link, constructed at Pegwell Bay in 2019. We strongly support the point made by Kent Wildlife Trust in light of FOI (Freedom of Information) material on Nemo Link. That material appears to show that, at the point of the final discharge of conditions seeking to ensure full saltmarsh recovery, all experts agreed that recovery was in truth far from complete and further monitoring was needed. Despite this, the relevant condition was still discharged.

This shows starkly why such issues cannot be left safely to post-consent monitoring, later regulatory judgment or vague discharge processes. In such sensitive cases, the necessary environmental safeguards must be subject to open, transparent and rigorous scrutiny through the examination itself, not left to be dealt with later once the spotlight has potentially moved elsewhere.

There are many reasons the Sea Link plans are grim for the natural environment, wildlife and people alike and your can read our final submission here.

Just in case we’ve left you in any doubt, CPRE Kent are calling on the Examining Authority to recommend to the Secretary of State, in clear and unequivocal terms, that development consent for Sea Link should be refused.

• For more on the environmentally damaging Sea Link proposals from National Grid, click here