Why we’re calling on National Grid to Rethink Sea Link

Rob Smith: Now, let's start with Rethink Sea Link. This is Kent Wildlife Trust's current campaign to persuade the National Grid to take another look at their plans to put a high-voltage power cable through Pegwell Bay and Minster Marshes, which are some of the most environmentally sensitive and theoretically protected lands in the whole of the UK. Sea Link is a new cable that is going to connect Kent with Suffolk, with the aim of allowing renewable energy to be moved around the UK more usefully.

But while there's a great deal of support for the idea of better infrastructure to help with the transition away from a carbon-based energy system, there are real concerns that this cable and the associated substation and pylons that go with it, will cause massive damage and destruction to the marshes. The National Grid do have multiple other potential options, but they've decided to go for Pegwell Bay despite the huge impact it could have on the environment – especially for the dozens of species of birds that rely on the bay's mud and marshes to survive over the winter. I went along to the country park at Pegwell Bay to see what the issues are and first spoke with Kent Wildlife Trust warden, Nina Jones. Nina, where are we? 

Nina Jones: So, we're currently at Pegwell and Sandwich Bay National Nature Reserve, which is on the coastline between Ramsgate and Dover. And it's one of our kind of only remaining areas of undeveloped coastline. It's an incredibly important area of wetland and we're just walking along the edge of the coast path here. So, we've got a view of the salt marsh and of the mud flats behind. 

Rob Smith: And, I mean, it's a cold January day, it's just above freezing. It's grey, it's quite dim at this time in the afternoon, but it has its own sort of bleak beauty to it, doesn’t it? 

Nina Jones: Yeah, absolutely. And that's part of the quality of Pegwell Bay. It's incredibly important for wildlife, but, of course, it's also important for people. It's a green space where we can get our recreation, our fresh air, and it's also a place that we can just take time to be mindful and of course, wildlife is important to that. People really enjoy the area for bird watching and there's a growing realisation of how important that is to our mental health, to spend time outside, quality time in peaceful natural areas such as Pegwell Bay. 

Rob Smith: And so, I just want to get a bit of an idea about how important it is – and, I mean, it's pretty unique, isn't it? This space here.  

Give me an idea of the kinds of species, of things that you'll find here that you won't find virtually anywhere else in Kent. 

Nina Jones: Yeah, absolutely. So, part of the reason for protective status here is some of our overwintering bird species, such as the sanderling and the grey and golden plover, which you find here in nationally recognised numbers. And they fly thousands of miles to get to Pegwell Bay or to stop here on their migratory route further south. And they rely on the salt marsh and the mud flats being undisturbed in order to be able to feed, regain their energy, and gain enough fat to survive the cold winter as well. 

Rob Smith: Okay, so as we look out across here at the moment, I mean, there's not too much bird life out here just at the minute, is there? But what can we see at the moment? 

Nina Jones: So, some of the bird life actually will be hidden in this salt marsh. It will be hiding away and roosting, and then, of course, we've got the sandbank on the other side, where we'll find other kinds of coastal birds, such as cormorants and various kinds of gulls that will be resting there and waiting for the sea to recede so that they can feed on the mud again. 

Rob Smith: And you're down here a lot, aren't you? Why is this place special for you? 

Nina Jones: I think it's partly the tranquility, as I've mentioned, but also, it's such a fascinating array of habitats here. You've got the chalk reef, salt marsh and mud flats, but you've also got the estuary, where we have Kent's biggest land haul-out site for common seals. So, lots of different factors, but it's such a wonderful mixture of habitats, which is really unusual to see. 

Rob Smith: So why are you worried about this Sea Link project? Because it's quite a big space. You know, as we look across it, it's hundreds of acres that we've got here and it's just one cable that's going to go through the middle of it. Why is that an issue? 

Nina Jones: It's an issue because we are yet to find out through surveys the real damage that could be done to the landscape, to the habitats, and to the species that survive here. And we know from the previous Nemo link that was trenched through the salt marsh in 2017 that the damage can be irreparable. The salt marsh still hasn't fixed itself, it hasn’t repaired. 

Rob Smith: How long ago did the Nemo link go in? 

Nina Jones: So that was 2017. 

Rob Smith: Right. Okay, so it's, what, six years on and it's still a scar? 

Nina Jones: Yeah, absolutely. It's changed the flow of water through the landscape and there haven't been surveys done on the direct damage to other kinds of habitats, such as the shellfish beds from the Nemo link. So, we really need more research done into those. 

Rob Smith: Okay. And at the time when Nemo link went in, did National Grid sort of say that it was all going to be fine afterwards? 

Nina Jones: Yes, those are the usual kind of terms that we get through and report, but there wasn't even the mitigation done on the salt marsh, which was agreed, which was a repairing of the bank behind it. 

Rob Smith: So, there's a degree of trust that has been lost that they haven't managed to rebuild yet? 

Nina Jones: Yes, I would say so. We obviously do our best to provide enough information and to kind of demand the surveys that we believe need to be done. In order to-this is to mitigate the impact. We're not saying that we don't agree with renewable energy - and the pipeline has to go somewhere - but we need more information about the mitigation hierarchy in regards to the other options for routing this cable through Northeast Kent. 

Rob Smith: Now, someone else who's deeply worried about the Sea Link plans is Nik Mitchell, a local activist and ecologist who loves Minster Marshes.  

So, Nik, we're just on the land between Pegwell Bay and Minster Marshes here. Why is this bit of the world important to you? 

Nik Mitchell: Pegwell Bay is connected to Minster Marshes in what's known as the Stour Valley and the two are very intrinsically linked. They're both important. So right now, we've just had a high tide and a lot of the birds that have been feeding out on the salt marsh and they say that one cubic metre of estuary mud contains the equivalent calories of 16 chocolate bars. 

Rob Smith: Wow. 

Nik Mitchell: But when the tides come in, they can't get to that, so they head into the marshes to feed. And the fields and the wetlands of the marshes is where they will move to during high tide, and they will also sometimes roost there at night. So, they're very intrinsically linked, and we get big numbers of birds to-ing and fro-ing between the bay and the marshes. 

Rob Smith: Because birds are really your thing, aren't they? You're a conservationist, you're really concerned about the environment, but birds are really your passion? 

Nik Mitchell: Yeah, absolutely. Birds is my thing, and I can hear them - there's some long-tailed tits calling in the tree behind me - and I'm really in tune with birds. And you live the world in a different way when you know what's going on with birds. Birds are definitely my thing. 

Rob Smith: And so, given that, how special is this area, the whole Pegwell Bay Minster Marshes area? 

Nik Mitchell: Extremely important. I mean, 3% of the land in the UK is wetland and its home to 10% of all of our species. Now, we've lost 73 million birds in the last 50 years. Wildlife is in a bad way and these marshes are always full of birds. It's a place for them to gather safely in numbers away from people. 

Rob Smith: "Favourite" is always a dangerous word, isn't it? But what are the ones that when you see birds around here that you get really excited about? 

Nik Mitchell: Well, this time of year in the winter - because it does change with the seasons - I absolutely love seeing the big numbers of cormorants coming in. And at any time right now, they could be coming over, heading back towards Stodmarsh and they would have been feeding out in the bay and we get flocks of them flying in their 'v' formations in the hundreds and it's a real spectacular sight. And also, the big flocks of lapwing that we get moving around. So probably the lapwings and the cormorants this time of year for me. 

Rob Smith: So, Sea Link. 

Nik Mitchell: Yes. 

Rob Smith: You're deeply concerned about that? 

Nik Mitchell: Yeah, really, yeah. 

Rob Smith: Why? 

Nik Mitchell: It's the wrong place. It really is the wrong place. I mean, I agree, we need to sort out our infrastructure, the growing demands and especially the growing demands of EV and obviously green energy. I accept it, but this really is the wrong place for it. And I feel like, having met with National Grid, they have no idea about how wildlife sensitive this place is. And I'm very connected to the marshes. I grew up in Minster and I'm down the marshes all the time and I know it so well.  

You know, we've got incredible wildlife down there. I'm talking breeding nightingales, turtle doves; we've got beavers, we've got peregrine falcons, the world's fastest animal. We've got water voles, the fastest declining mammal, breeding turtle doves, the fastest declining bird. We've got incredible wildlife down there; owls, bats; the list goes on. And they want to build this ginormous converter station right on the marshes neighbouring a Site of Special Scientific Interest. And we're talking 22 acres-plus, 100ft high. 

Rob Smith: A hundred feet high? 

Nik Mitchell: A hundred feet high. 

Rob Smith: That's a big building. 

Nik Mitchell: And they haven't really let out of the bag any artist impressions of what it's going to look like. So, when this does go into planning in the autumn, people are going to be like, "wow". And then we're going to be like, "we told you so". We must campaign because it's going to catch a lot of people off guard just how ginormous this is going to be. 

Rob Smith: Okay. And the land-so I think it's 17 hectares, isn't it, that they put aside for the substation? 

Nik Mitchell: Yes.  

Rob Smith: So that's what, 30 odd acres, but the building itself is 20 odd acres? 

Nik Mitchell: It's 22 acres and I think that equates to about 9 hectares. But they have changed their mind on the size. Now we're talking a 40-acre field where they want to build it, but they've upped the size they want to build. It's getting bigger each time, so it's a significantly large building; light pollution, noise pollution, water runoff. 

Rob Smith: And what is your concern then? What kind of impact is that actually going to have on the wildlife in the area? 

Nik Mitchell: It's going to have an impact in many ways. So, I mean, one of the concerns is electromagnetic field. It can interfere with certain species of birds' migration. The noise pollution can interfere with things like bats and owls. The light pollution can interfere with owls and bats, and it interferes with humans as well.

And the other thing is the big pylons they want to build. It's a superhighway for migrating birds, the marshes. They come off the bay and they head inland to the marshes, and they want to put great big, giant pylons right across the river. So, it's going to be a real bird strike hazard. And we get big flocks of birds coming through, so if one of them hits, multiple birds will hit. And you can imagine when they migrate at nighttime, they haven't got a chance of seeing them. 

Rob Smith: You can hear the passion in Nik Mitchell's voice, can't you? And he is far from being alone. Now, Steve Weeks is an Area Manager for Kent Wildlife Trust. 

Steve Weeks: This site is one of the most highly protected sites in the country because of its wildlife value. Sea Link isn't the first cable to come through here. We had the Thanet Offshore cable came through in 2010, came through the Nature Reserve. In 2017, we had the Nemo link cable, which came through the reserve. A couple of years ago, Vattenfall tried to put a third cable through, but fortunately that was turned down. And now we have the National Grid Sea Link cable coming through. So, it's this in-combination effect. These companies say that this is the most appropriate route to use, which we don't necessarily agree with. So other companies in the future will use the same argument. And we've got this potential for just more and more cables to be coming through. 

Rob Smith: And what impact does that actually have? So, as you say, the Nemo link is coming through here and there is wildlife here now. So, the companies might argue, well, stuff has come through and the wildlife's still here. It's not a problem. 

Steve Weeks: That's right. Well, there's two different levels of disturbance. You've got the impact when the construction phase is going on, so you've got the direct disturbance of the birds that are out there trying to feed and roost and rest on these sites, and then you've got the long-term impacts after the construction. If you go and look down where the Nemo cable came ashore, they used a trenched technique. So, they basically went out with machines, dug a big trench, put the cable in it and backfilled it.  

They said at the time that they could mitigate for the damage to the salt marsh, but sadly, here we are sort of six years later and you can still see a big sway through the salt marsh where the cable went through. So, we are concerned that there are long-lasting impacts to some of these cable projects. 

Rob Smith: What would you like them to do instead? 

Steve Weeks: We would like them to-firstly, we're not completely satisfied with the argument they use for this route. There were several other routes proposed in the initial stage of the project. We would like a clear explanation why some of those other routes that are less environmentally damaging haven't been chosen. 

Rob Smith: And why do you think they haven't? 

Steve Weeks: Well, we're not sure, but they haven't adequately given us the information to answer that. 

Rob Smith: Do you have a suspicion, though? I mean, do you think they think this is the cheapest way of doing it? 

Steve Weeks: I suspect that this probably is the cheapest route, yes, and that's why the previous cables have come through this route as well. 

Rob Smith: I also spoke with Emma Waller, who's leading the Trust campaign to Rethink Sea Link. She's actually been working alongside the National Grid to try and get them to understand the potential environmental impacts of the different routes that have been suggested. 

Emma Waller: It's frustrating, especially when we know that there are alternative routes that have less environmental constraints. One of the six options that they have identified for the landfall at Kent is Broadstairs. That is one of the options. And in some of their reports, actually, it seems to have some of the least environmental damaging constraints. But we're not quite sure why Pegwell Bay is their chosen route. 

Rob Smith: What then do you want people to do about it? Because the consultation period is actually finished, isn't it? 

Emma Waller: Yes. So, they submitted their preliminary environmental information reports in October, which is open to public consultation. And reviewing that, it's frustrating to see that the majority of their ecological surveys, which should actually help determine the route, have not actually been undertaken. So, they haven't even started a lot of their surveys. So, we think that they submitted this preliminary environmental information report prematurely and that we would like them to resubmit once they've finished their ecological surveys. 

Rob Smith: So, there's still all to play for? 

Emma Waller: Yes. Yeah, at the moment, even though we've written quite a detailed response, we still can't see the justification of the chosen route and we can't form an appropriate review of the route because there's just not that ecological information there. They've not provided that mitigation, so at the moment, we just don't know the full environmental impacts that it will have. 

Rob Smith: And as a final thought process, there has been a link put through here before. The Nemo link comes right through the park here. If you didn't know, you perhaps wouldn't know. There's a kind of a big chalky scar bank that goes through the middle of it. But people who come down here may well not know that there's a power cable here at all. And they might think, well, if one's gone through, another one can go through, it's not a problem. So why couldn't another one go through here? 

Emma Waller: So, yes, the Nemo link went through, I think, in 2017. And, again, at the time, there was all these promises that trenchless techniques could happen. So that's when you don't have to literally trench through. You can push the cables through using trenchless technology, so they're pushed underneath the salt marsh. 

Rob Smith: So, it's like a mole-ing one, that digs its own tunnel as it goes along, kind of thing? 

Emma Waller: I assume so. I'm not an expert, but yes. 

Rob Smith: You're not an engineer? 

Emma Waller: No, I’m not an engineer. 

Rob Smith: But you wouldn't see anything on the ground at all? 

Emma Waller: Exactly. Yeah, there's a trenchless option, but when the time came, for whatever reason, they no longer could do that. So, they trenched right through the salt marsh. And you can still see the damage caused from that. The salt marsh hasn't repaired in the seven years since it's happened. So, it's really concerning that, again, they are at the stage they cannot confirm to using trenchless options for the Sea Link, and one of their reasons for the chosen route is that they could use trenchless options, but they still can't commit to it at this stage. 

Rob Smith: So, as a Trust, you have some trust issues with the National Grid? 

Emma Waller: Yeah, exactly. And because there's already been that damage that hasn't been repaired, no mitigation, no compensation was done from that damage. You know, it could risk irreversible damage if it's then trenched again. 

Rob Smith: So, there are some real issues for the National Grid to address at Pegwell Bay. We on the podcast here have put a bid in to have a chat with them directly. I really hope we can - watch this space on that one. In the meantime, if you want to find out more about the proposals and what you could potentially do to help in the Kent Wildlife Trust's campaign to Rethink Sea Link, then take a look at the website and you can find links to pages there that will show you how to lobby your MP, sign the petition, and generally let National Grid know how you feel about it.