Manston DCO recommendation report is sent to the Secretary of State

The Manston airport site Photo Swift Aerial Photography

A recommendation report by the Planning Inspectorate over the development consent order for the Manston airport site has been sent to the Secretary of State today (October 18).

The report had been delayed due to final payment not being processed.

The Planning Inspectorate examining panel, led by Kelvin McDonald, examined the bid earlier this year that was made by Riveroak Strategic Partners to  acquire the site and create a cargo hub and associated aviation business.

The land was owned by Stone Hill Park, which had submitted a planning application to create up to 3,700 homes, business and leisure and associated infrastructure. SHP sold the site to RSP subsidiary RiverOak MSE Ltd for £16.5 million in July, just days before the hearings concluded.

The sale contained a clause which means RSP cannot sell the land until 2029 unless SHP agree.

DCO approval is still needed for the cargo hub project, an issue which has split the isle. Supporters of the plan say it will bring jobs and economic benefits but campaigners against the proposals say it will result in pollution, noise and a loss of tourist trade – particularly in Ramsgate which is under the flight path.

During the hearings representations were made by a wide variety of organisations, including Thanet council and Historic England, campaign groups including Save Manston Airport association, Supporters of Manston Airport, No Night Flights and Nethercourt Action Group, numerous individuals and both Manston museums.

The Secretary of State now has three months in which to issue a decision. The decision letter and Recommendation Report will be published on the Planning Inspectorate Manston project page once a decision has been made.

47 Comments

  1. seeing as payment was due soon after the examination finished in July that cheque must have been sent by carrier pigeon

      • RSP have already spent millions of £££ on the DCO process, which is – and has to be – only for an airport. Nothing else. The fact that the date has now been set at 18th January, means that any money due has now cleared.

  2. come on Manston Airport Nay sayers, last chance to make things up on the hoof. Rocket park?. 2 million decibels 200,000 lorry movements we heard all the scare mongering over the years and guess what. it is coming back. well done those at RSP and supporter of Manston Airport.
    A very welcome back manston Airport when the clearance is given after lies upon lies the truth will out.

    • I hope RSP will not succeed in their plans for an airport. The noise and pollution would be intolerable for Ramsgate and Herne Bay residents..

      • Tbh, it won’t be that much different to how it was on a busy day in the past and nowhere nearly as bad as when Virgin Airways used to do continuous rounds of bump landings and starts with their trainee pilots for hours on end. The employment opportunities will be wonderful. Just what poverty-stricken Thanet needs!

        • What job opportunities?
          When the Spoons in Ramsgate opened, it created more jobs than were lost when the failed Manston Airport closed.

        • And I suppose all of the ground staff will be Kent residents then and at least 50% of them will definitely be Thanet residents? And I mean those here now needing jobs not those shipped in to live here after they are employed? And no I don’t care what race or religion they are but they should be current residents if this would be a benefit to the community here which has been so let down.

      • It never was before, only one old woman from Herne Bay complained. With an airport, which Manston is, you are bound to get some noise.
        You will soon get used to it, or move!

    • I do love a loonie
      Now let us go back to reality
      A report has been sent to the SoS with a recommendation attached. The SoS has until January to decide whether to accept that report or make their own decision.
      Until then you are pissin’in the wind

    • Good grief.
      Every expert opinion says commercial aviation won’t work at Kanston.
      Practical experience says so, too
      The Climate Change agenda is casting doubt on the expansion of aviation.
      RSP has no money (it was late in paying the Inspectorate’s modest bill).
      RSP’s director, Tony Freudmann, is a serial failure when it comes to redeveloping old airports. He has around a dozen to his discredit.
      He’s certainly good with money, but only when it’s someone else’s (he was struck off as a solicitor for embezzlement)

  3. Great news! We shall know for sure by 9th January, 2020, if the DCO has been accepted by the government. But, as RiverOak now own Manston Airport anyway, at least it won’t be turned into a sprawling housing estate, clogging up our already busy roads. The TDC website‘s 5 year housing plan proves they didn’t need the airfield land anyway!

    • If you’re worried about traffic then why not lobby councils and MPs for a large investment in the improvement of public transport? Housing estates don’t have to be sprawling, by the way.

  4. The Inspectorate can’t “process” a payment it hasn’t received, can it?
    Perhaps a problem was that Mr Freudmann no longer has any clients to whom he might turn to “raise” funds.

    • What does Bannerman62 mean by “in denial”? Does he or she already know the result of the Planning Inspectorate’s deliberations?

    • So bannerman62

      As you seem to know that manston is coming back as an airport would you like to tell us how the aviation fuel is going to be brought into manston. It cant be by tanker as that would be to expansive.
      So is manston going to be put on the fuel grid ?
      As for a haulage company wanting to use it is bonkers just drive up the M1, M6 near the Midlands that’s where they are all based .
      Are Amazon more to manston ? Give us names of companies that are coming to manston and WHY .

  5. Any businessperson who thinks a cargo hub in the bottom right hand corner of England needs to give their head a wobble. Still on the plus side it will give the Extinction Rebellion lots of reasons to come to thanet

  6. If all those people who think they will jump on a passenger plane took notice of what is planned they would know it is going to be freight, the only trip they are likely to get is a trip to the hospital with the effects of the poisonous participants belched out by aircraft .

  7. Marva and the rest of you moaning about Manston Airport, it was here long before any of you, it is coming back bringing much needed jobs and everything that comes with a little wealth in the pockets of locals. If you and your ilk do not like it, there is a big Brexit free world out there, go grab this opportunity before the reaper catches up with you.

    • I would be interested to see the evidence, any evidence at all, to support your assertion that
      a) [Manston] is coming back and
      b) it will bring much needed jobs.

    • There’s nobody moaning, but there are plenty of people who have sound reasons for not wanting an airport near Ramsgate (or indeed anywhere else).

    • So Jobs for Thanetians are more than welcome

      When was manston a stand alone success ?
      3 times it’s been a stand alone airport 3 times it’s gone bust. This time the person in charge is a failed business person yet you put your faith in him.
      I will ask these questions again as the pro group never answer them
      1, how are you going to bring in the aviation fuel. Way to expensive to bring in by tanker. So is manston going to be linked to the National fuel grid ?
      2, it’s going to be very expensive for a haulage company to be based in the bottom right hand corner of England, having to get up a two lane duel carriageway, than onto a two lanes M2 before you even get to the M25 carpark.

      Just those two points to me says manston as an airport makes no sense.

      Englands main cargo hub is in the midlands and I haven’t seen or read anything that says a cargo hub is needed in the SE corner of England. I can see how any company is going to make money being from the south east corner of kent. Now it Manston was on the National fuel grid and placed near the M25 it might have a chance.

      Like I say 3 companies have tried to make a go of manston all 3 have failed what is so different about this business person you know the one who was spending other people’s money. Than again it’s about right for thanet we have had people dressing up as sheikh to try and force a company into ramsgate harbour…..this is thanet !!

    • Jobs promised by the old anne of 50 Lothian square offshore leaks. Before that it was Freudman he went bust… Boom shake the room full of offshore leaks and fraudsters

  8. For the sake of clarity ref the payment this is off the PINS site
    Application fees
    Applicants are charged for:
    Applications for authorisation under sections 52 and 53 of the Planning Act 2008, obtaining information about interests in land and rights of entry
    Venue costs, where the Applicant does not provide a venue for a hearing
    A fee to accompany the application (the ‘Acceptance fee’)
    An initial payment in respect of the handling of an application (payable at the beginning of the Examination stage, following the Preliminary Meeting)
    A final payment in respect of the handling of an application (payable on completion of the Examination stage)
    So payable on COMPLETION of the examination stage which was 9/7/2019
    https://infrastructure.planninginspectorate.gov.uk/application-process/application-fees/

  9. Lovely bunch on the SMAA Facebook group. An admin and moderator (both mature adults ??)find it hilariuos taking the piss out of anybody who doesn’t support the airport.

  10. Doom not boom busters.
    There is more to an assination of land and Freudman assination was before then sold to gloat she offshore leaked it and assigned to Freudman… Follow the money…

  11. Viability is not some airy fairy promise
    Viability is what keeps businesses afloat
    If a business isn’t viable it folds taking any jobs down with it
    Planestation (run by Freudmann) borrowed over £28M in mezzanine finance (Mezzanine finance is money borrowed outside of the mainstream because no mainstream financier would touch it with a bargepole)
    Even with that finance it folded (jobs gone)
    Now at the examination Sally Fiction was asked if her forecasts were viable
    She said she was not asked to examine viability
    Now Freudmann has stated he wants to borrow £300M yet planespotters have yet to ask how that will be repaid
    Currently Freudmann onfirms he has borrowed £35M from Panama yet planespotters have yet to ask how he intends to repay that money
    Freudmann confirms a legal entity registered in Tortola, BVI now owns 700 acres of real estate in Kent yet they don’t ask who now owns Manston airport

    • “Now Freudmann has stated he wants to borrow £300M yet planespotters have yet to ask how that will be repaid”
      One of the critical analyses of RSP’s proposals made the point that under their business plan, such as it was, investors would be unlikely to see much, if any, return on their investments.
      So, if an airport won’t work, then what on Earth can you do with 700 acres of development land in the SE of England?

  12. confused probably because your not in the knowledge of the full facts. Jentex now owned by RSP will more than likely fuel the airport, I like the way the trolls bring out even more scare stories which have all been answered and rebuked over the past few years and consultations. lets face the facts, Manston Airport is on its way back either embrace this or leave Thanet its as simple as that.

    • Firstly, nobody knows yet what the result of RSP’s attempt to develop an airport will be . Secondly, there are a number of irrefutable reasons -facts, not “scare stories”- why aviation should be reduced not developed. Thirdly, “Yay”‘s last sentence is clearly mistaken as the alternatives he or she presents in it are merely two extremes on a wide range of possible behaviour.

    • “You’re”, not “Your”. I see you’re confused with your grammar.
      Yes , RSP own the fuel farm at Jentex.
      Yes, in the unlikely event that an airport ever takes off it will refuel the planes.
      (RSP say that income streams from refuelling planes is part of their business plan, such as it is)
      That just begs the question “how does the fuel at the fuel farm get there”?
      For the benefit of us ignoramuses would you explain one or two of the “scare stories which have all been answered and rebuked” so we can avoid trotting them out again?
      Ta.

    • So jentex ate going to build new fuel storage tanks , I didnt know that but the fuel still needs to brought in by tanker which will make refuelling very expensive. I didnt know jentex had a licence for aviation fuel…

  13. Pro airport people keep banging on about myths that have been debunked, but when challenged, can never actually come up with chapter and verse.
    On the other hand arguments against an airport are based on fact and logically constructed.

    • I do find it funny that the pro manston think that bring aviation fuel in by tanker to jentex is cost effective !
      So you have the cost of haulage of fuel. Than the cost of buying it from jentex. So that’s 2 price increases on the cost of buying the fuel at source.

      Its alot more cost effective to use an airport which is on the National grid as there is no need for a middle man ie jentex.

      I do find it odd when you bring up points the pro group dont answer them just tell us to move lol. What haulage company in their right mind are going to from the middles cargo hub to come to manston with all the increase cost in haulage.
      Pros give us the names of the operators and haulage companies that are queuing up to use manston and please dont just tell me to move out of thanet !!!

  14. Jentex sold fuel oil for ships. They never used to refuel planes. The aviation fuel was brought in by tanker and stored in rusting underground tanks which were condemned by the environment agency. RSP will need to install new fuel tanks for the fuel which will be brought in byroad tanker. If their plans ever come to fruition the main road into Thanet will be a convoy of fuel trucks.

  15. It’s really funny how the pro-airport campaigners still believe that they will get an airport. Everyone knows it isn’t viable. So, they’ll open the airport up like they did before; a few dodgy freighters in the middle of the night and incessant training flights on bank holiday weekends. Meanwhile, they’ll start selling off parts of the airfield they aren’t using for housing. By the time they close it as an airfield it’ll be half the size it is now.

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