hoverport

Image by Keith Ross from article in Isle of Thanet Gazette here

Change to Access at the Hoverport

Response to the hoverport consultation has now closed, we will await Planning Inspectorate’s decision.

Background

National Grid (NG) held Statutory consultations between October and December 2023 and the documents available to the public at that time did not indicate any use for the hoverport site. The PIER Volume 1 Part 3 states:

“The landfall would be a committed trenchless crossing under the sensitive salt marsh habitat within the Pegwell Bay designated sites and this trenchless crossing will also include St Augustine’s and Stonelees Golf Course.” (PIER volume 1 Part 3)

However, the October 2023 plans (General Arrangement Plans Version A) showed the two access routes for the construction machinery as going straight through the saltmarsh:

For clarity, the two access routes shown are either side of the petrol station at Pegwell with the left-hand route being adjacent to the scar left from the Nemo project.

Using these routes would have caused irreparable harm to a protected habitat and showed the NG attitude to protecting habitats at that time.

In July 2024, NG produced amendments to their plans which included, for the first time, the use of the hoverport site for construction, maintenance and a construction compound. NG explained, quite rightly, that this was to avoid damage to the saltmarsh during construction but why this had not been obvious to them before is difficult to understand.

 In November 2024 NG submitted amended plans that removed the compound from the hoverport.

Unfortunately, the amended plans had an access point to the intertidal area from the hoverport apron that passed through existing saltmarsh. Again, this calls into question the priority NG give to safeguarding habitats when making important decisions.

NG applied for development consent in March 2025, and this was accepted for examination in April 2025 despite no detailed environmental survey having been done of the hoverport.

In October 2025, NG applied for 5 changes to the proposed development consent order including changes to the order limits.

The ecological and historical importance of Thanet is often dismissed, although we have been shouting from the rooftops for years - newspaper article from 1999