February update

SMM and many of you have also participated in (yet another!) consultation. This one was to Ofgem’s request for feedback on National Grid’s business plans. Again, thank you to everyone who responded and to those who copied us in. We’re blown away by what an articulate and passionate group of members we have.

We’re delighted to report that our feedback to Ofgem about some of the legacy damage caused by the Nemo project has resulted in National Grid starting to initiate repairs when all earlier requests fell on deaf ears. We’re hopeful that this is a positive indication of the level of scrutiny we can expect of National Grid’s plans.

Since our December email, Kent Wildlife Trust has met with Polly Billington again who is providing them with very helpful advice on their end of the project (as a reminder, Pegwell Bay falls into Polly’s constituency, while Minster Marshes are within Sir Roger Gale’s). KWT has become increasingly concerned about the lack of mitigation and surveys of our marine mammals, particularly since the recent sighting of a humpback whale off the coast of Deal. There is evidence that humpbacks are moving further round the coast, with another sighted off the coast of Eastbourne within an hour of the one spotted at Deal, meaning there are at least two around our shoreline.

Most recently, many of you will have seen the February 2025 ‘Community Update’ that National Grid has sent to people living nearest the planned site of construction. We don’t think it’s very truthful – not least because it doesn’t mention Pegwell Bay at all and describes the converter station as being built ‘near’ Minster marshes rather than on them which we feel is rather stretching the truth! If you didn’t get a copy through your door, you can read it in the Files section of our Facebook group or, if you’re not on Facebook, just reply to this email and ask us to send you a PDF by email.

What’s next

We may seem quiet at the moment but we’re beavering away in the background. We’re talking to the Environmental Law Foundation (ELF) who are providing us with legal advice and to various other specialists who will be able to support us in our formal response to the application if it is accepted by the Planning Inspectorate. Once the DCO is submitted, the Planning Inspectorate has 28 days to decide to accept or reject the application. After that, we enter the pre-examination stage which is when National Grid’s plans will be published, and we can register as interested parties to comment on them.

DCO Process

We’ll obviously keep you up to date with developments as we hear about them. Although ELF have been giving us pro bono advice so far, they won’t be able to continue that forever.  We’ve already raised a fantastic £6,745 for legal advice but we’re likely to need considerably more to pursue a legal challenge. Until the next stage of the process, we’re not entirely sure what that will involve.

So until then, please continue to share and follow our Save Minster Marshes campaign page on Facebook and Instagram as it really is helping to raise awareness of our campaign. Since launching in December, our Facebook campaign page has now had more than 50,000 views and reached nearly 14,000 people which is amazing! Our Bird of the Day posts are proving very popular (and we have many more birds – plus other threatened species of flora and fauna – still to share!).