I’m in this really weird frame of mind about airports – I thoroughly disapprove of air travel – polluting, noisy, gas guzzling and encouraging us to consume out of season luxuries from countries whose economies we can ruin by suddenly deciding avocados are bad for us after all.
But I love flying. My biggest thrill was going by six seater seaplane from the river Clyde in Glasgow flying low over the Scottish Highlands and landing in the sea at Oban harbour.
When I first came to Thanet Manston airport was a great place for Sunday lunch. You ate your roast gazing at an old aeroplane parked on the runway and dreamt of far away places. You could go on the odd package holiday with a charter flight occasionally and that was that.
Over the years we’ve had a series of exciting developments. For a while we all went cheaply to Malaga and Ireland with EU Jet, which went bust leaving people all over Europe with no way home.
Then for two glorious years we had KLM. I could be giving my three kisses (they’re very affectionate in Holland, just too tall) to my friend in Amsterdam in two and a half hours door to door! But two flights a day wasn’t sustainable.
Public money has gone into propping up Manston but it’s not really got much hope. It was optimistically called London Manston and then Kent International, but it’s nowhere near London and was never very international.
UKIP-inspired nostalgia for the victorious RAF past and their enthusiasm for the 1950s that Manston represented has kept the dream of a thriving passenger terminal alive. They conveniently forgot that for many of us the 1950s meant polio epidemics, rationing and austerity, so only the rich could afford air travel. It’s hard to fathom exactly how poor old Manston got burdened with all that misplaced emotion.
The most recent attempt at revival involves no fun for most of us at all, as it will make Manston into a cargo hub. That means stuff flying in, being put on lorries and going off on our roads all night – that’s when cargo generally comes in. Manston’s done a bit of cargo before. Remember when we had the odd plane coming in at night? I was often woken with booming noises over Broadstairs Bay and much worse over Ramsgate.
And remember the training flights? I lay on the beach in Broadstairs and watched huge planes circling endlessly, practising landing – with a beginner pilot – flying low over a crowded beach. By the time they got to Ramsgate it felt like the planes were skimming your head! Thrilling at first but after the first few, really scary and annoying.
On Friday the group that has been ferocious to councils of all persuasions in opposing airport excesses like that, No Night Flights, held a public meeting to explain to Thanet people how to submit their view to the planning authorities about the latest attempt to bring life to Manston.
Staggeringly around 500 people turned up from all parts of Thanet, listened politely (unusual for Thanet – which doesn’t hold back on its opinions and isn’t averse to setting about opponents with fists flying on occasion), asked sensible questions about how to put in objections and gave a rousing cheer to Rebecca Gordon Nesbitt, who is the Labour party parliamentary candidate standing against airport enthusiast Craig Mackinlay.
Looking back the battle for Manston has seemed like a struggle between sleep loving NIMBYs and little Englanders who think the Battle of Britain is still on. But maybe more realism and less passion would be helpful in solving the problem.
I would love to be able to go to Spain and Holland again from Manston, but air pollution, noise in the night, very few local jobs and no passengers at all? No thanks!
Editorial
RSP on night flights
RSP has previously said it is not looking to carry out night flights but wants ‘flexibility.’
RSP director Tony Freudmann (pictured) said: “We have to model the worst case scenario (in the documentation), which is what we did. We are looking for some flexibility but we are not looking at scheduled night flights.
“The problem with cargo flights is they do sometimes run late and if you have a plane with flowers or fresh produce you can’t tell them to go away, they need to land or they will lose their cargo.
“That is not a regular thing and we just need flexibility for that scenario. The old 106 restrictions meant there was no need for night flights apart from exceptional cases and we are not likely to need anything different.”
The DCO
Registration is now open for people who want to comment on the DCO which seeks development consent and compulsory acquisition powers over the land. It is the means of obtaining permission for developments categorised as Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIP). This includes energy, transport, water and waste projects.
RSP wants to gain the DCO for a compulsory purchase of the Manston airport site so it can create an international cargo hub with the possibility of passenger flights. Plans submitted to Thanet council by site owners Stone Hill Park are for housing, business and infrastructure on the land.
The process
Registration for interested parties is now open and runs until 11.59pm on October 8.
Once registered as an Interested Party a person can make a Relevant Representation. A Relevant Representation is a summary of a person’s views on an application, made in writing.
An Examining Authority is also appointed at the Pre-examination stage, and all Interested Parties will be invited to attend a preliminary meeting, run and chaired by the Examining Authority.
Although there is no statutory timescale for this stage of the process, it usually takes approximately three months from the formal notification and publicity of an accepted application.
Once the application moves on to Phase 4 (Examination) there is a maximum of 12 months for the Secretary of State to make a decision on whether to approve the DCO to reopen Manston airport.
Once a decision has been issued by the Secretary of State, there is a six week period in which it can be challenged in the High Court. This process of legal challenge is known as Judicial Review.
To register as an interested party click here
For more information on No Night Flights go to: https://nonightflights.co.uk/
A very balanced view in my opinion. I agree that a cargo hub is just not the way to go. We have award winning blue flag beaches, let’s build more leisure facilities to encourage year-round tourism- that is the only way we are going to become a thriving district.
Thanet was the jewel in the crown of tourism with it’s many sandy beaches and it is in the progress of having a recurrence once again with hotels and holiday accommodation popping up all around.
A freight hub which brings the worst levels of pollution and night noise to an area would kill off this tourism and leave it’s residents living in a hell hole. RSP hasn’t been truthful all through their prolonged acquisition process and application for a DCO. We now know the true scale of this would be environmentally devastating for Thanet. I don’t think the Planning Inspectorate should progress this option any further. It is time to pull the rug out and stop this in it’s tracks from blighting the area.
“RSP director Tony Freudmann said: “We have to model the worst case scenario (in the documentation), which is what we did. We are looking for some flexibility but we are not looking at scheduled night flights.”
But cargo flights aren’t ‘scheduled’. They’re contract flights. So he IS planning cargo night flights (which is when cargo shippers want to fly).
Oh so the 400 attendance has now gone up to 500 to protest about night flights. I guess at least half that number are happy to travel to other airports and not care one jot if they fly over anyone’s house at night just so long as they reach their destination. We have brought up a family whilst living under the flight path both when the RAF was flying Valcan bombers and huge transport planes at all times at the day and night then in much quieter times when the airport became a civil airport.. I hope the airport reopens and is very successful creating many jobs. What we don’t want is thousands of houses being built on the airport site with London councils moving out their nightmare tenants treating Manston as an overspill estate for bad guys. That is what London councils do on a daily bases and they will do too Manston.
Do you welcome night flights? It’s beyond comprehension that a sane, rational person would welcome planes flying overhead, hour after hour, all night long. And who are you to guess? How about a few facts?
When Manston was an (failing) airport, it employed about 150 people. Since it closed, Wetherspoons has opened, and Sainsbury is advertising: the number of jobs created is twice the number that ever happened at Manston.
How many times do people have to be told: we get the houses, like it or not. We don’t have to have the situation compounded by a noisy, dirty, environmentally damaging airport. Just who will live in the houses is exactly the same question, with the same answers, with or without an airport.
I cannot see any argument whatsoever in favour of aviation at Manston with respect to the quality of life of the good folk of Thanet
From one Andrew to another Andrew I completely agree with you. Also somehow this myth, in my opinion, has started about the Stone Hill Park plans leading to people from London being ‘dumped’ from there. As someone who commutes to London from Ramsgate and with a glass half full mentality and putting 2+2 together one assume recent plans on Thanet Parkway and speeding up the line to London are designed to encourage commuters to live there with their higher than average salaries. I once read an article from the current South Thanet MP which espoused the benefits of commuters or DFLs as some people call them who spend their money in the bars and restaurants, on the nurseries, in improving their houses using scaffolders and local tradesmen….how many commuters with their higher than average salaries spending money in the local community would be left under a horrible cargo hub?
Couldn’t agree more!
Does Ann Long really live in Ramsgate? Most people who live under a flight path, eg Heathrow’s, seem to hate it. The residents of Heathrow had their MP’s support in campaigning against airport expansion. Lucky them! Our Thanet MPs are incomprehensibly supportive of RSP’s plans to make Ramsgate and other places under the flightpath of the proposed Manston airport intolerable places to live.
I hope the airport never reopens.
Good on NNF. Why should Ramsgate and the rest of Thanet be blighted by a polluting cargo hub which will offer only a handful of low waged jobs and do untold damage to our health, environment and tourist economy. We live in a beautiful part of the world – why go out of the way to ruin it with this monstrosity of a proposal?
Finally some common sense. A good article by someone who isn’t blinded by nostalgia. I notice some comments mention “we don’t want houses” as if brininging Manston back stops that. No it doesn’t instead the houses planned for Manston will now be built elsewhere so we’ll have cargo lorries, fuel tankers plus cars. Ive seen elsewhere supporters of the airport stating RSP have to include night flights but again this is a myth. The PINS has clearly stated they do not require this and it’s down to RSP to decide if they want night flights. If according to Tony Freudmann they only need a bit of flexibility to accommodate the occasional late cargo flight then why ask for a QC for night flights higher than Heathrow? Oh and we keep getting told they don’t need scheduled night flights but most cargo is chartered not scheduled. So come on RSP state you don’t need chartered or scheduled flights and get rid of the QC higher than Heathrow if you want people to believe you.
It’s refreshing to hear Ms. Tongue’s views. As someone who has not previously involved herself in the debate on either side it is revealing to hear which arguments are influencing people who don’t have an axe to grind. The No Night Flights campaigners have done a great job of presenting the fact of the proposal without any of the hype and spin which has characterised the pro-airport position. The hundreds of people who attended on Friday will undoubtedly share Ms. Tongue’s concerns that the plans are for a freight depot and that the application includes provision for literally thousands of night flights every year. People aren’t stupid. They know that night-flights are an integral element of the air-freight business and they know that the Planning Inspectorate has confirmed that they didn’t ask RSP to make provision for thousands of them in their application. It’s time for RSP to tell local people the truth.
This article reflects the changes in my own opinion. I started out as a keen supporter of a revived Manston airport, even of it becoming the third London airport. It seemed so blindingly obvious that Thanet wanted the new airport that the residents around Heathrow and Gatwick dreaded. We had the runway, the potential Thanet Parkway station to whizz the passengers to London, and the unemployment levels that demanded investment.But then I started to hear the UKIP-style arguments in favour, including the hints about “undesirables” being moved in if houses were built on the site. These mythical ne’er do wells soon became the “refugees”, the “asylum seekers” etc as if there was a sinister plan to spoil perfect Thanet.
Eventually, it became clear that the “clever money” in the City of London already owned land around Heathrow AND Gatwick and had no intention of watching all the new airport investment going anywhere else.They had already made up their minds and only the deluded and out- of- touch still imagined that Manston had any future as a major airport.
Like the campaign for Brexit,the combination of nostalgia for a non-existent past, and fear of foreigners was a winning formula for the most dishonest politicians. Now we only have a painful reality to face.
Fraudmanns plans are to sell off the land for development by way of conning everyman and his dog into believing in the impossible fight hub???? then once failed (as planned) knock out the land through his mate who he (Fraudmann shared an office with who specializes in buying old airports and then after a trick or two turns them into building sites.This whole mess would never off got of the ground if it wasn’t for Fraudmanns long term mate and snide MP sir Roger Gale who has lied and put pressure on all sorts of people from Mrs Gloag to reporters from the BBC to (Do as Roger says) or else.
How ridiculous for those anti Manston moaners to use the ‘planes are dirty and will be flying all night’ argument to help their feeble attempts of stopping the airport from reopening. Those in planes do not throw fast food rubbish out of the windows or leave babies soiled nappies in the road or roar through the town at night on with no exhaust on their vehicles spewing fumes into the air. That is a typical of those who would complain of noise even if they lived in a cemetery just so they could moan about something. The airport was there long before them and I hope it is there long after there are gone.
What unpleasant comments! If you can’t argue your case cogently, then don’t argue at all.
Planes *are* dirty. They are the most polluting of transport modes in terms of kg carbon dioxide per kmkg of cargo carried (there’s no point in mentioning passenger km, because there won’t be any).
Tony Freudmann, the struck off solicitor and a director of RSP, along with his spokesperson Roger Gale, assure us there will be no need for scheduled night flights. (No mention of unscheduled night flights). I find this less than credible:
Every air freight hub operates 24×7, especially night, because (for example) Tesco’s want’s its freshly flown in cut daffs fresh in the stores at 08:00 in the morning, not 20:00 in the evening.
If RSP has no night flights planned, whay then have they allowed for a QC bigger than Heathrow, using noisier aircraft? (and, before someone says, it is *not* a requirement of the Planning Inspectorate)
BTW I’m the other Andrew.
The Fox who uses my garden as his toilet, brings his takeaways and his hobbies – stolen shoes and socks – makes all the mess you mention but doesn’t fill out air with pollution and our roads with lorries. Let’s make Manston into a forest so the foxes can go and live there! Put the wood back in Westwood.
I was born in Ramsgate lived here all my life under the flight path and love Manston Airport. NNF are lying about not wanting night flights the truth is they dont want our aiport at all!
Makes me sick when people moan about night flghts..they never give a thought to shift workers such as doctors,nurses,police fire officers, armed forces and rescue services and all the other workers who work through the night and sleep through the day…never hear them complain about daytime flights. And dont complain about house prices dropping…you try to afford to by a house near Gatwick or close to any busy airports…the closer to the airport the pricier they are . Stop being so selfish…The youngsters of Ramsgate & Hernebay are desperate for decent paid work.
I don’t recall anyone who doesn’t want a new airport at Manston objecting because they own ahouse and think its value will drop. They (we) usually object to noise and pollution.
Are there really no objections to daytime flights?(Which were terrifyingly loud over central Ramsgate.)
I have not done any research into house prices, but Gatwick and Heathrow aren’t the only airports in Britain and people who do want to sell their houses might well be able to afford a house nowhere near the south-east, if the worst happens and RSP buys SHP’s land and (unlikely though it is) develop a successful cargo hub airport at Manston.
Your wrong, people who work nights have a choice! People having their quality of life destroyed by low flying cargo aircraft will not have a choice, and don’t give me that stupid argument about moving, thousands of people can’t sell up and move, not will the thousands who rent! As far as jobs are concerned, the only jobs will be a few non skilled, or low skilled ones, the rest will be highly skilled aviation engineers, who won’t be local! So where will they live? Thanet already has a housing crisis, but at least all these engineers will be able to buy a new property at Birchington, Garling, Westgate and elsewhere, proposed by this Tory local council, aided by their UKIP Councillor friends.
Hear hear!!!!
Anne, Can you please explain to us all why you want to live under a 24/7 flight path?
If you ask most people living under the flight paths of Stanstead, Heathrow and Gatwick they cannot wait to move away but cannot because nobody is mad enough to purchase their homes under those circumstances. Even friends in West Acton are now worried about which way the new runway at heathrow will be orientated and they are much further away from heathrow than we will be from manston!
Ann Long’s recent comment is not just mistaken but gratuitously insulting. Nobody who complains about aeroplane noise and pollution, whether actual or potential, is moaning. Their concerns are based on factual evidence and not just on personal experience.
Her second sentence is simply bizarre. Her third is a groundless assumption. Her fourth…well, it sounds spiteful.
Also agree a well balanced piece. Speaking to an old friend at the weekend who worked in the freight offices at Manston on and off for 25 years until it closed. You would expect him to be pro cargo hub but he’s not and gave me very detailed reasons why it won’t work including:
Why would DHL etc move their already set up distribution networks to Kent
Where is all this extra business coming from
There won’t be many quality jobs as it will all be barcoded prelabelled stuff shipped in and out with minimal handling
Etc etc. I’d love to be able to fly (as I do 4-5 times a year so I’m not a nimby) from Manston but fear it will be a part time freight hub as it has been in the past with limited commercial ops and in the meantime the houses that could have gone up there will be covering our limited farmland
The re-opening of Manston as a cargo airport would have a disastrous affect on the health of the local population in Ramsgate in particular, and Thanet in general! This Tory controlled local council, with the support of some UKIP Councillors are proposing in the Draft Local plan to keep Manston as an airport, whilst the owners want to build 3,700 new homes there, with Hi Tech employment space, schools, food/shops, cafe’s, a 120 bed Hotel, a Health Centre, a small scale campus for higher/further education, recreational & community space, a sports village, and a 50 meter Olympic swimming pool!
But RiverOak the American Hedge Fund Company behind obtaining a Development Control Order (DCO) to force the owners to sell it to them, want to have some 12,000 cargo aircraft a year flying in low over Ramsgate Harbour, at 300 meters, up Ramsgate High street, over the town at 250/200 meters high, then just 100 meters over Nethercourt, before touch down! This is some 30 or more flights a day, and night, polluting the air and hastening the deaths of those people with COPD like Asthma, Emphysema, and Pulmonary Fibrois!
Ramsgate Harbour attracts thousands of tourists, who can sit al fresco overlooking the Marina, enjoying a meal, or a drink, in which case this privilege will disappear, taking the tourist industry with it!
Noise pollution from 4 engine cargo aircraft, every hour will be horrific, as these aircraft roar up over the Harbour, and up over Ramsgate town, before touch down at Manston! This will destroy the quality of life for thousands, due to lack of sleep, and not being able to concentrate at school, or work, and devaluing property! Would anyone want to live under the flight paths, say 600 meters either side of the centre line (about a mile width)
And all cargo flown in to Manston would have to be transported by road, through already choked roads, by thousands of HGV vehicles, increasing air pollution yet further! This won’t affect the two Thanet MP’s though, because neither of them live in Thanet!
At present the Tory Thanet Council are going through the Draft Local Plan process, so people can comment on their lunatic proposal to force the owners of Msnston to sell it to these American cowboys, so contact them on [email protected] to object! Also, go to https://infrastructure.planninginspector.gov.uk/project/south-east/manston-airport/?ipcsection=relreps to apply to the Planning Inspectorate to become an Interested Party to object to the Development Control Order if you value Thanet as somewhere safe, and attractive to live!
In her spiteful and unpleasant diatribe Ann Long says: “The airport was there long before them and I hope it is there long after there are gone.” I am pleased to inform Ms. Long that the airport closed more than four years ago. It ceased to exist four years ago. So all of this nonsense about how long it’s been there is just that. It no longer exists and the campaign to “reopen it” is, in fact, a campaign to open a brand new freight hub. People were living in Ramsgate for many years before anyone even thought about opening a freight hub. Those people are still living there long after the airport has gone.
Surely, after Brexit, with the roads of Kent snarled up with lorries waiting to pass through the red-tape enhanced customs at Dover, any freight-hub airport would be well away from Kent! The point of a freight-hub would be to leap-frog over Kent’s traffic chaos to somewhere more in the centre of the country.
It is clear that the moaners on here are just jumping on the band wagon of those who are never happy unless there is something to complain about. The prevailing winds across THANET make it an ideal place for an airport,there will be no pollution from the planes. Also Manston WAS a cargo hub before it closed with fruit flowers and goods from around the world landing there and emergency Aid being sent out from manston to disaster zones all over the world by Oxfam and others.
In any event planes WILL NOT be flying in and out all night.
The prevailing winds have absolutely nothing to do with Manston’s lication as an airport. The prevailing winds determine the orientation of the runway(s), if any.
The ideal location for a freight hub is a central location, served by excellent road and rail connections, embedded in an existing logistics infrastructure.
Somewhere like, oh I don’t know, say East Midlands or Heathrow.
There can be few places in the UK worsr sited as a cargo hub than Manston, tucked away in the SE of the UK, surrounded on three sides by sea.Isle of Skye, perhaps, or the Lizard Peninsula in Cornwall.
As for night flights: true that the struck off solicitor Tony Freudmann and his spokesperson Rodger Gale keep saying there will be no scheduled night flights. One wonders why, then, RSP id applying a night time quota bigger than Heathrow? (And no, the PI doesn’t require it)
Id it possible for you to post without being rude to people?
BTW *I’m* the other Andrew.
I am not moaning. There are strong reasons for objecting to RSP’s plans for an airport. Ann Long ‘s insults continue but are not accompanied by any good reasons for supporting the idea of a24/7 cargo hub on the outskirts of Ramsgate.
Actually, the “prevailing winds” in Thanet make it one of the worst places for an airport. The runway is aligned East to West but the prevailing winds come in from the South West or North East. Being on the coast, there’s no protection and so you get vicious crosswinds which make landing very tricky. In addition to this, Thanet often suffers from poor visibility with sea mist and fog. I’m afraid Ann Long doesn’t seem to know what she’s talking about.
So a massive sink estate with No longterm employment is the answer! Are you mad, and how many of you Don’t pollute in my back yard Mob Fly!! Most I suspect. Drive a car? Use electricity etc etc, tell you what! go live in the woods,throw away all your goods, that when made caused pollution, then you won’t be a hypocrite!! Me I’ll carry on with my polluting life, and no l don’t feel guilty! So get real or live in the woods,or on the moors etc.I absolutely support Manston as an airport come freight, night flights whatever and yes I lived under the flightpath, and now I’m even nearer so bring it on, let’s hear those gas turbines roar and the smell of Kerosene prevail!!!
Glen Horwood is exactly the sort of person who couldn’t care less about others, and after his diatribes I suggest he seeks help (I expect he is a Trump supporter as well) He is happy to sacrifice the quality of life of people who have no wish to move away from air and noise pollution, instead the air and noise pollution should move away from them! Apart from the devaluing of property should Manston be hijacked by RiverOak, the American Hedge Fund company behind them, what about the thousands of people who rent in properties that will have their lives ruined by low flying cargo planes, more than 2 an hour, day and night? If Glenn doesn’t seek help, then can he, and other similar unintelligent, ignorant, and ill informed ranters keep their views to themselves, rather than make themselves appear stupid?
In reply to Glenn Horwood: I don’t fly, I don’t drive, I don’t have a car, Itry to use as little water and electricity as I can, I try to use as little non-recyclable material as possibleand to recycle as much as possible.
I don’t feel guilty either. But if he or she is being serious and/or truthful, perhaps he or she, instead of verbally people who don’t agree, could give some serious and truthful reasons for supporting RSP’s plans.
“Verbally abusing” of course.
Do any of the objectors fly, or drive, live in a house use electricity, have manufactured items!! Then what’s with Pollution from Manston! how is this different? You want to go back to nature, no one is stopping you, plenty of open space in Scotland, away from all that nasty pollution! They need more hardy people there, so problem solved, we get our smelly freight planes back, you go live with your principles, in Scotland. Oh and mind the midges, a touch irritating.
I speak as a current airline pilot flying on a weekly basis from London. If this cargo hub goes ahead it will be an absolute disaster for Thanet and surrounding area. There will be VERY few jobs generated for local people, because of the way cargo is processed these days, it uses ia very automatic procedure. Can you people who support this ludicrous idea not understand the impact this will have on your everyday life. If you need proof get in your car, drive to East Midlands Airport park One mile from the centre line and see how much sleep you get (warning take a good pair of ear defenders) you’re going to need them. This will not just affected the people that live under the extended centreline of the runway, arrival and departures will route via Dover VOR onto the airway system using fly over waypoints anywhere in East Kent (Sandwich for example). In bad weather pilots are now starting to use PBN approach’s (I will let you google it) which does away with the traditional ILS system, being a GPS type approach this also means you can fly an approach from any fixed point, and as the ILS has been removed from Manston this will become the system they will use, as its currently being rolled out in the UK and Europe (much cheaper to maintain) no (or very few) passenger flights!! What is there to like about this idea. If I was to be selfish yes I could probably fly from Manston myself, but the sacrifices would just be to great.
Glenn Horwood seems to think there is just an “either/or” solution to this (or any other?) issue. Either you try to enjoy the fruits of modern technology and just put up with the related pollution and environmental destruction. OR you have to give it all up and “live in the woods” like our ancestors. But the story of the past 30 years has been one of growing awareness of the damage our modern lifestyles are doing AND finding sensible solutions. In the last few years , we have seen the huge growth of renewable energy, not least in East Kent. Controls are placed on the kind of chemicals used on farmland.Rivers and streams are , painfully slowly, being cleaned up so that otters are returning and there are salmon in the river Thames. Moves continue to reduce the emissions from diesel vehicles and even more effort to increase the use of electric cars which can derive power from renewable sources. All this and no discernible decline in our quality of life. THAT is the story of the last few years and the progress continues. We didn’t listen to the people like Glenn Horwood who would have stopped all recent progress and told us to just put up with the poor air and water quality as if we had no choice.
All of you who object to my opinions, have and will pollute this Planet,Yesterday Today and Tomorrow. You will buy throwaway items like plastic milk cartons, shampoo bottles etc etc, and you will travel by Air, Road, Rail or Ship,which all pollute! Building Thousands of Houses here in Thanet, will pollute! There is no FREE LUNCH it does not exist. There is NO Green energy free from pollution! Wind Turbines, are ineffective subsidised short life stop gap excuses, go check out the figures, how there made, installed lifespan, decommisioning cost, both financial and enviromental, they and solar are no answer to future energy needs on the scale that is required. That is only likely to be met with Nuclear Fision and possible fusion. As for Manston Airport,if were going to live in a world of air travel, which is not stopping any time soon! lets have some of the cake, we have good road links to the whole of the country, if it does’nt work build houses,but if you build them first and you don’t like it well then it’s tough, but just remember House Developers are not your friends there in it for profit, and sugar coating is their stock in trade.And as for the lady who uses next to nothing,well the whole of your material world is based on the consumption of Hydrocarbons, we are like it or not all in the same boat! unless we all go live in the woods. No Thanks.
I think the world would be a better place if glenn horwood went and lived in the woods. Maybr a sylvanian experience would help calm his fevered brow.
BTW once I read a piece containing a description of Manston’s good road connections I stop reading.
I don’t think Glenn Horwood has got the point of my previous comment. Clearly , someone living in a house in Ramsgate is not going to be using “next to nothing”- not in 21st-century Britain. But I am trying not to be wasteful. I am not some lonely eccentric,there are thousands if not millions of people in Britain who try not to waste natural resources.
Please try to stop insulting those who don’t agree with you. It is a common tactic among the airport supporters who comment here. But what is the point of it? It doesn’t change anyone’s mind.
In reply to Glenn Horwood’s point about solar and wind energy being subsidised, well, so are all the other forms of energy. We still import coal from Poland and Australia because their coal industries are hugely supported by their governments to maintain their exports. The amount that the UK government will be paying to build the new nuclear power stations along the Severn is jaw-dropping! But they would never be built if any private company was expected to fork out the cost themselves. They would run a mile when they realised they would never make any money out of it.
I would have no objection to tax-payers money being used to install enhanced insulation in Britain’s cold and draughty homes to help reduce the need for polluting energy production. Once again, this is not an “either/or” issue. We can have comfortable modern lives without destroying the Planet, but only if we adopt sensible measures to offset pollution and related Climate change. The necessary steps are being taken now, but it is painfully slow and inadequate because people like Glenn Horwood and Donald Trump refuse to accept the need to act and , in large and small ways, seek to freeze us in the thinking of the past.
Thanet desperately needs lots of mixed types of jobs for future generations. The airport is our only hope! Ann is right. Manston Airport is older than any of us (unless you’re older than 100). It is and always has been a part of Thanet life. Will it affect the leisure and tourism industry? Has it affected Nice in France, as just one example? Easy access from Nice airport to the lovely coastline there, has enhanced it, not destroyed it, as the antis would have us believe. And yes, there may be the odd flight between 11.30pm and 6am, but very few. Which planes and airlines are the antis talking about that fly at night these days? Ask for evidence, not just their hearsay and scaremongering. They frequently mislead, misquote and exaggerate. But let PINS and the SoS be the final judges. #savemanstonairport.
“Ramsgate resident” doesn’t seem to know (But how can this be possible?) that RSP say they want a cargo hub airport with night flights. Like Heathrow.
And of course Manston Airport was not always a part of Thanet life. It isn’t now apart from its presence as a possible threat to the future well-being of local residents.