Pegwell Bay, the Hoverport & Wildlife
The Kent end of Sea Link has attracted significant environmental concern because the proposed route passes through and alongside an exceptionally important network of coastal, wetland and grassland habitats.
These concerns extend beyond Pegwell Bay itself.
They include the former hoverport alongside Cliffsend, the wider coastal environment and Minster Marshes, where National Grid proposes to construct the new converter station and substation.
Why is Pegwell Bay so important?
Pegwell Bay contains extensive intertidal mudflats and saltmarsh, with the River Stour estuary and surrounding landscape providing feeding, roosting and breeding habitat for wildlife.
Together with the wider Sandwich Bay landscape, it forms part of an interconnected system of coastal, wetland, grassland and marsh habitats.
Parts of the wider area benefit from national and international nature conservation designations recognising the importance of these habitats and the wildlife they support.
The mudflats and surrounding land are particularly important for resident, migrating and wintering birds.
But Pegwell Bay is not important only because of its environmental designations.
For Cliffsend, it is part of our local landscape – somewhere residents walk, exercise, enjoy the coast and watch wildlife.
What would happen at Pegwell Bay?
National Grid proposes to use trenchless construction techniques rather than excavating an open cable trench directly through the saltmarsh.
This is intended to reduce direct surface disturbance to sensitive habitat.
However, avoiding an open trench does not mean there would be no construction activity at Pegwell Bay.
Work would still be required within the intertidal area to install the marine cables and associated ducts.
Access to those works is one of the reasons the former hoverport remains important to the Sea Link proposals.
The former hoverport
The former Hoverlloyd hoverport at Pegwell Bay once operated passenger and vehicle hovercraft services across the Channel.
Those operations ended decades ago and the terminal buildings were subsequently demolished.
Large areas of concrete and hardstanding remained.
But over the decades which followed, nature gradually reclaimed the site.
Cracks in the old hardstanding, thin soils, scrub and vegetation have developed into an unusual mosaic of habitats.
What can initially appear to be an abandoned concrete site now supports important wildlife.
Ecological surveys have recorded notable plants and animals at or around the site, including fiery clearwing moth, Sussex emerald moth, reptiles, man orchid and lizard orchid.
Kent Wildlife Trust has particularly highlighted the ecological value of the former hoverport.
The fact that the land was originally created and developed by people does not make the habitat which subsequently developed there ecologically unimportant.
Why is Sea Link relevant to the hoverport?
National Grid does not propose permanent Sea Link infrastructure on the former hoverport.
Earlier proposals included greater construction use of the site, but the proposed construction compound was subsequently removed.
The hoverport would nevertheless remain an access route for construction vehicles, plant and personnel travelling to the intertidal works at Pegwell Bay.
National Grid changed the proposed access arrangements in 2025 after identifying that the extent of saltmarsh had increased.
It says the revised route across more of the former hoverport would allow vehicles to avoid travelling on or close to the saltmarsh.
Why are there still concerns?
Avoiding vehicle movements across saltmarsh reduces one potential environmental effect.
The concern raised by conservation organisations is what transferring that activity onto the former hoverport could mean for the habitat which has developed there.
Kent Wildlife Trust welcomed the removal of the construction compound but has continued to raise concerns about using the hoverport as an access route.
Its concerns include the potential loss of vegetation and effects upon important flora and fauna.
Concerns have also been raised about the effects heavy construction machinery could have through compaction, vibration, rutting and localised damage.
This illustrates one of the difficult issues surrounding the proposed route.
Moving construction activity away from one sensitive habitat does not necessarily eliminate environmental effects if the alternative passes through another valuable habitat.
Minster Marshes
Environmental concerns continue further inland.
National Grid proposes to construct its new converter station and substation within the wider Minster Marshes landscape.
The importance of Minster Marshes is not determined simply by whether every field sits within the formal boundary of a protected nature site.
Wildlife does not recognise those boundaries.
Birds which use protected areas around Pegwell Bay can also rely upon surrounding marshes, wetlands and agricultural land for feeding and roosting.
Land outside a protected site's formal boundary can therefore be functionally linked to it because species associated with the protected site depend upon that surrounding land.
What does “functionally linked land” mean?
A bird might feed on the mudflats at Pegwell Bay when the tide is out, then move inland to fields or marshland as the tide changes.
Those different areas collectively support the same population.
That relationship is why the connection between Pegwell Bay, Minster Marshes and the surrounding countryside has featured so prominently in the environmental debate around Sea Link.
Kent Wildlife Trust has raised particular concerns about the loss and fragmentation of habitat within Minster Marshes and the effects upon functionally linked land.
Significant numbers of golden plover have been recorded using land affected by the proposals.
Kent Wildlife Trust has also reported the presence of European eel within Minster Marshes. European eel is classified as Critically Endangered on the global IUCN Red List.
What have conservation organisations said?
Both Kent Wildlife Trust and the RSPB support the transition towards renewable energy and the development of appropriate electricity infrastructure.
Their objections to Sea Link concern the route and locations chosen for elements of the project rather than opposition to renewable energy itself.
Kent Wildlife Trust has campaigned under the heading “Rethink Sea Link” and has raised concerns about Pegwell Bay, the former hoverport, Minster Marshes, habitat loss and fragmentation, and whether less environmentally damaging alternatives were sufficiently considered.
The RSPB maintained its objection when the DCO Examination closed in May 2026.
It has questioned the selection of routes affecting important wildlife sites and has argued that National Grid has not convincingly demonstrated that alternative routes are unavailable.
What does National Grid say?
National Grid says it has undertaken extensive environmental surveys and engaged with organisations including Natural England and the Environment Agency.
It says the design of Sea Link has changed in response to environmental information.
This includes using trenchless construction techniques at the Pegwell Bay landfall and changing the hoverport access arrangements to avoid the expanded saltmarsh.
National Grid also says Sea Link would deliver at least 10% Biodiversity Net Gain for relevant onshore parts of the project.
Its proposals include habitat creation and enhancement measures.
National Grid's position is therefore that environmental effects can be avoided, reduced or compensated for through the design and mitigation accompanying the project.
Conservation organisations continue to dispute whether those measures adequately address the potential effects and whether less damaging alternatives were sufficiently considered.
That disagreement formed an important part of the evidence considered during the Sea Link Examination.