More than 90% of the UK’s wetlands have been destroyed over the last 100 years, and they now cover only three percent of the country. But these biological hotspots are crucial habitats for a diverse range of animals and plants, and support 10 percent of our species. East Kent’s Minster Marshes are no exception, as George Cooper knows all too well.
Minster Marshes: a place of community importance and huge biological diversity
Cooper said:
I’ve been spending time on the marshes for more than five decades. We do bird ringing, and have recorded over 170 species of birds and animals, including turtle doves, skylarks, nightingales, curlew, water voles, slow worms, beavers and one of the most endangered species in the UK, the European eel. We have over 30 red listed species here, as it’s one of the quietest, unspoilt areas here in Thanet. In 2023 we ringed 90 percent of the woodcock, 90 percent of the jacksnipe and 50 percent of all the skylarks in the whole of Kent that year.
Minster Marshes are directly behind, and functionally connected to, Pegwell Bay which is an internationally important wetland. The bay provides rich feeding grounds for hundreds of thousands of waders and wildfowl, which head to the Marsh when the tide comes in.
It is protected under a multitude of designations. It’s nationally protected as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), and internationally protected as a Special Protection Area (SPA), and Ramsar site. The Kent coast is part of the East Atlantic Flyway (EAF), which extends from the Arctic to South Africa and is one of eight major global bird migration routes.
It is used by millions of birds each year. In 2023 the EAF joined the list of contenders for UNESCO World Heritage status, in recognition of its vital importance to bird populations and wildlife.
Proposed Sea Link project would have catastrophic consequences on wildlife
The site is also a valuable space for the local community.
Thanet is one of the most deprived areas in the South East, and access to wild space is crucial to residents’ well-being. The Way of St Augustine is part of a pilgrims route, and runs through the marsh to Canterbury, while the landing site of Julius Caesar is thought to be at Pegwell Bay.
Thanet is also one of Kent’s most populated regions and is currently experiencing unprecedented amounts of development, which is pushing wildlife out. Minster Marshes are precious and irreplaceable, and is the last remaining refuge for nature in the area. So Cooper was horrified when he learnt about National Grid’s proposed Sea Link project.
It’s madness. This is the worst environmental site you could ever pick for a project like this. I found out about the Sea Link project totally by chance, so started Save Minster Marshes Facebook page and also a petition, to let people know what’s going on.
The local community have very strong feelings against the project, and Kent Wildlife Trust, the Campaign to Protect Rural England, and also the local MP, Sir Roger Gale, are on board with us. This campaign has actually taken over my life, as I feel so strongly about these plans.
Sea Link construction is estimated to take around four years, and would involve laying a 145 km high voltage cable under the sea between Suffolk and Kent, which would come onshore through Pegwell Bay, and then go underground to Minster Marshes, linking up to a gigantic converter station.
This would be almost 30 metres high and would cover the equivalent of 22 football pitches, or 9 hectares. If the cables cannot be direct drilled underneath the SSSI, a 100 metre wide open trench would be excavated instead. In addition, approximately 3.5 km of new high voltage overhead power lines would be installed, and National Grid also plan to build up the level of the marsh by two metres, which would require hundreds of thousands of tonnes of aggregate.
The converter station would also cause noise and light pollution 24/7, which would negatively impact the wildlife, which is highly sensitive to disturbance.
Internationally important site to be destroyed because it’s the cheapest option to produce ‘green energy’
According to National Grid, Sea Link is ‘essential in the UK’s journey to net zero by 2050, and is part of a wider programme to upgrade the entire network’. They claim they owe it to the public to do the project at the cheapest price, and Minster Marshes is supposedly the cheapest option.
But those campaigning to save Minster Marshes and Pegwell Bay are questioning the logic of destroying an internationally important National Nature Reserve, and critically endangered species, to produce so called ‘green energy’ when alternative sites are available nearby which are less damaging and better suited.
To make things even worse, National Grid have put in a proposal to mitigate the losses of Minster Marshes with another area of land, but have picked a site which is next to a dual carriageway, surrounded by industry and light pollution, and the fields they have picked are criss-crossed with power lines.
Cooper argues that:
There’s hardly any birds there now, so I don’t know why they think waders will go there once they have fiddled around with the site. Thanet and Dover are the closest points to Europe, and most migratory birds take the closest distance, to save energy. It’s only 22 miles to France and the easiest crossing for them. They have been using this area, historically, for hundreds if not thousands of years, so to destroy it and just say they can go to another site, chosen by National Grid, is ridiculous.
If Sea Link is given the go ahead, this will be the third time high voltage cables will have come through Pegwell Bay.
When the wind farms were built in Thanet, a huge trench was dug which damaged an important brackish water lagoon, which has still not been repaired. Also, the Nemo Link project which was completed in 2018 involved laying a high voltage under sea electricity cable between Belgium and East Kent, along with a converter station, substation, and new overhead power lines through Minster marshes.
“As soon as they did this we were finding dead swans” Cooper said:
Now they want to put power lines perpendicular across the migration route. A lot of water fowl like to fly over water so they follow the Stour river valley through Minster Marshes, but they are now planning to put up supersized pylons across the river. In 2003 there were 179 mute swans killed because they hit National Grid’s power lines, and just two miles away up they now want to put up more.
Minster Marshes: it’s all about making money
As a private company, National Grid’s only aim is to make profit for its shareholders at the expense of everything else. At the end of the first half of this financial year it posted an underlying operating profit of £2.05 billion, an increase of 14% compared to the previous years £1.8 billion.
“The only reason we are building all this infrastructure- the Nemo Link, the Nautilus Link, the Lion Link, and the proposed Sea Link at Minster Marshes, is so we can sell all the excess energy to Europe” argues Cooper:
All National Grid does is transport power, and any power they transport to Europe is at an unregulated price, so they can charge whatever they want. It’s all about making money. The Wildlife and Wetland Trust are working with National Grid to produce 100,000 hectares of wetland, but they’re going to destroy a habitat you can’t rebuild. Whatever mitigation is carried out, if anything at all, will take years before it will come to fruition for wildlife to use. If all the nature is driven out of East Kent, the community and their children will lose out. It’s not right. We’ve got to stand up and fight for wildlife, and we’ll fight this to the bitter end.
Although this project is still in the pre-application stage of the process, National Grid is expected to submit their plans to the Planning Inspectorate any day, and campaigners will then have just 28 days to look through three hundred documents, and decide if they will take the case to a judicial review.
Sea Link is just one of 17 major infrastructure projects planned for National Grid’s Great Grid Update of England and Wales.
See all the species recorded on Minster Marshes here
How you can help Save Minster Marshes and its threatened wildlife:
- Sign the petition here.
- Donate to help raise funds for possible legal challenges here.
- Subscribe for updates at https://www.minstermarshes.com
- Join the Save Minster Marshes Facebook page here.
- Email National Grid / Sealink / Government personnel and others. Contacts are here.
Featured image via the Canary
