Save Minster Marshes
Pegwell Bay where the cables will make landfall is a North East Kent Marine Protected Area (NEKMPA) a highly protected area for nature conservation:
Two Special Areas of Conservation (Thanet Coast SAC & Sandwich Bay SAC)
A Special Protection Area (Thanet Coast & Sandwich Bay SPA)
A Wetland of International Importance (Thanet Coast & Sandwich Bay Ramsar site)
Site of Special Scientific Interest (all Thanet Coast SSSI – see below, and part of the Sandwich Bay to Hacklinge Marshes SSSI)
Kent’s largest National Nature Reserve – the ‘Sandwich and Pegwell Bay NNR‘
Thanet Coast Marine Conservation Zone (MCZ)
National Grid - Sea Link Project
the largest electricity converter station in Europe
Sited on the Minster Marshes close to the Minster Stream and River Stour.
The development will be 28 meters tall (the height of a 10 storey building) covering a huge 9 hectares (22 acres), within meters of Hackling Marshes Site of Special Scientific interest, known for it’s Nightingales and red listed species.
A haul road will be constructed across the marsh which will be 10 metres wide with 27 culverts cutting off each water crossing.
The Sustainability Drainage Systems (SUDS) plans for the development are inadequate and have not provided sufficient information about management of surface runoff and flood events. Due to the nature of marsh soil, the water will not drain quickly enough in high rainfall for a traditional SUDs system.
To protect from flooding the converter station will now be raised by 2 meters - this will mean 40,000 lorries of aggregate to brought through our roads on top of existing construction traffic.
Construction has been proposed as 7 days a week, 7am to 7pm, Mon to Fri and 7am to 5pm weekends
Huge quantities of water will be needed for this construction. Documents also state there is a risk of groundwater contamination which Thanet is reliant on.
Save Minster Marshes Merchandise
Show your support in the fight against destruction from National Grid's SeaLink project. We agree with the need for green energy but this should not be built at the expense of our environment.