The Thanet Offshore Wind Farm (TOW) project is located approximately 11.3km off Foreness Point, the most easterly part of Kent (see Figure 1.1) and its cable landfall is located within Pegwell Bay (BNG 634585 E 163850 N). The cable corridor crosses intertidal habitat before following the alignment of the nearby coastal road to Richborough (also located on Figure 1.1). Following discussions with the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) in 2009, the cable was installed using an onshore cable plough as a means of reducing disturbance to the surrounding habitat. During the cable installation works, a 15m wide corridor of saltmarsh was disturbed.
Six monthly surveys of the area were undertaken between March and August 2010 due to a request from Natural England to monitor saltmarsh recovery. Another survey was undertaken in August 2011 to determine if the area of new saltmarsh had established sufficiently to blend in with the adjacent existing areas. Following a review of the 2011 survey and report, Natural England requested an additional survey, which was subsequently undertaken in 2012.
The survey was undertaken on the 21st September 2012 and used the agreed methodology for which all the previous surveys followed. As with the 2011 survey,
quadrats were also taken along the cable corridor and the surrounding saltmarsh to allow a comparison of the habitats.
Details of the proposed survey methodology, including discussions with Natural England, are provided in Section 3 and Appendix A.