Following the Secretary of State’s decision to grant development consent for National Grid’s Sea Link project on 30 October 2026, Kent Wildlife Trust has set out its priorities for protecting internationally important habitats and wildlife at Sandwich and Pegwell Bay.
While the Trust is incredibly disappointed in this decision, it is determined to ensure that environmental commitments are delivered, outstanding concerns are addressed and lessons from previous infrastructure projects are not ignored.
The Secretary of State accepted the Examining Authority’s recommendation that the strategic need for the electricity infrastructure outweighed the environmental harm identified. Although the decision concluded that the project would not adversely affect the integrity of protected sites, this relies on mitigation measures being delivered effectively. Consent does not mean there will be no harm to wildlife or habitats.
Throughout its Rethink Sea Link campaign, Kent Wildlife Trust has recognised the importance of upgrading the electricity network and decarbonising the energy sector, while arguing that alternative locations which would avoid damaging internationally important habitats deserved greater consideration. It maintains that the climate and biodiversity crises are two sides of the same coin, and a sustainable energy future must not come at the expense of the natural world.
What has Kent Wildlife Trust achieved?
After four years of challenging the proposals, Kent Wildlife Trust has helped secure important changes and environmental safeguards through the planning process. These include:
- Protecting Pegwell Bay’s saltmarsh: The consent prevents National Grid from reverting to damaging open-cut trenching across the saltmarsh at Pegwell Bay. Only horizontal directional drilling (HDD) or Direct Pipe is permitted at the landfall. This is a significant safeguard given the lasting damage caused by the previous Nemo Link works.
- A role in detailed design: Kent Wildlife Trust will be consulted on key aspects of the landfall’s detailed design, including access routes and pre-construction saltmarsh surveys.
- Protecting the marine environment: The project route was redesigned to avoid the Goodwin Sands Marine Conservation Zone. The Trust also pushed for a better understanding of potential impacts on marine mammals and more detailed baseline assessments.
- Restricting Hoverport use: The Hoverport was removed as a construction compound and restricted to emergency access only. Kent Wildlife Trust must be notified within 24 hours of any emergency deployment.
- Protecting birds: Seasonal restrictions on certain noisy construction activities, bird diverters on new overhead lines and bird monitoring have been secured.
- Safeguards for other wildlife: Further surveys and mitigation are required for species including beavers, water voles and hazel dormice.
- Strengthening operational noise protections: Amendments to the consent strengthen arrangements for investigating complaints about operational noise, with action required if monitoring shows that permitted levels are exceeded.
Despite these safeguards, significant concerns remain about the project's environmental impacts. These include habitat loss affecting wintering birds, the suitability of the proposed golden plover compensation site and the limited two-year period secured for bird collision monitoring, despite the Trust calling for at least five years.
The Secretary of State also did not accept National Grid’s proposed Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) plans as a sufficiently detailed or enforceable environmental benefit of the project. Its voluntary commitment to deliver 10% BNG is not a legal requirement for Sea Link.
What needs to happen now?
With consent granted, the focus shifts to ensuring that the environmental protections secured through the planning process are translated into effective action. Kent Wildlife Trust will concentrate on several key priorities as the project progresses:
- Scrutinising detailed design and surveys: Ensuring that plans for the landfall, construction access and pre-construction ecological surveys properly account for the needs of sensitive habitats and wildlife.
- Challenging inadequate mitigation and compensation: Examining proposed measures to avoid, reduce and compensate for environmental harm, particularly the loss of habitat used by wintering birds and the suitability of the golden plover compensation site.
- Monitoring impacts on birds: Pressing for robust monitoring of bird disturbance and collision risks, and continuing to push for long-term monitoring.
- Holding National Grid to account: Monitoring compliance with environmental commitments and ensuring that any breaches or unexpected impacts are properly investigated and addressed.
- Preventing further damage to Pegwell Bay: Scrutinising construction methods and access arrangements to protect the saltmarsh and wider landscape, and ensuring that the lasting damage caused by Nemo Link is not repeated.
Kent Wildlife Trust remains concerned that the project has been approved before important ecological surveys have been completed and key mitigation measures have been fully designed or agreed. This means consent has been granted without a complete understanding of the potential impacts on wildlife or certainty that the proposed measures will provide adequate protection.
Emma Waller, Senior Planning and Policy Officer at Kent Wildlife Trust, said:
“While this is an incredibly disappointing outcome, I am proud of what we have achieved through four years of challenging these proposals. We have secured important changes and safeguards and ensured that the environmental risks to this internationally important landscape could not be ignored. But we have also seen first-hand the lasting damage that can result when environmental impacts are underestimated and promises of restoration fall short. The damage left behind by Nemo Link must not be repeated, and we will not allow the lessons from that project to be ignored.
“We are also carefully exploring all available options following the decision, including whether there may be grounds for a judicial review. This is being considered thoroughly with the campaign groups, and no options are being ruled out at this stage. We remain committed to challenging the decision wherever there are legitimate grounds to do so and will provide further updates as our position develops.
“Whatever happens next, our work is far from over. We will scrutinise every stage of Sea Link’s delivery, challenge inadequate protections and hold both National Grid and the relevant regulators to account. Environmental commitments must be more than promises on paper, and where damage occurs, it must not be overlooked or brushed aside. We may not have secured the decision we wanted, but we are determined to use every opportunity available to protect this special place and ensure that the mistakes of the past are not repeated.”
These outcomes reflect a wider collective effort, including the work of RSPB, CPRE Kent, Save Minster Marshes, Suffolk Energy Action Solutions and the many communities and individuals who have spoken up for nature. Kent Wildlife Trust is grateful to everyone who has supported the Rethink Sea Link campaign.
A spokesperson for Save Minster Marshes campaign, said:
"After more than four years of fighting against National Grid’s Sea Link project, Save Minster Marshes is devastated that it has been approved by the Secretary of State. The project has been criticised on the strongest environmental, economic and social grounds by over 6,000 respondents, including the Campaign to Protect Rural England, Kent Wildlife Trust, Natural England and the RSPB but it’s still been given the go ahead.
"Save Minster Marshes are now working together with Kent Wildlife Trust, SEAS (our counterparts in Suffolk) and our legal teams to review the Secretary of State’s Sea Link decision. We are hugely grateful for the support and encouragement from our members and the wider community. We have the resolve and are determined to hold National Grid to account."
A future powered by green energy must also protect the natural world. There is no green future without nature.
Find out more about our Rethink Sea Link campaign.