Manston DCO: North Thanet MP says speed up decision in light of Heathrow third runway ruling

The Manston airport site Photo Swift Aerial Photography

North Thanet MP Sir Roger Gale has asked the government to speed up a decision on the Development Consent Order for Manston airport.

The MP has made the request to the Secretary of State for Transport amid news that controversial plans for a third runway at Heathrow airport have been deemed unlawful because climate commitments were not taken into account.

The Court of Appeal judgement follows a case launched by environmental campaigners. Judges said for the third runway to go ahead it would have to fit with UK climate policy.

Heathrow said it would challenge the decision, but the government has said it would not appeal.

Sir Roger Gale

In response to the news North Thanet MP Roger Gale said: “In the light of the judgement on the third runway at Heathrow it is more important than ever that we get Manston up and flying again as swiftly as possible.  Post-Brexit Britain is going to need additional airfreight and passenger capacity of the kind that Manston can offer swiftly. The UK is as we speak losing business to Schiphol, Charles de Gaulle, Frankfurt and Dubai and that cannot be allowed to continue if we are to prosper as a trading nation after 31st December.

“Manston has been an airport for more than a hundred years, is designated as an airport in the Local Plan and is `shovel ready` in terms of development with many millions of pounds available for investment in a state-of-the-art net zero carbon modernisation.

“I have asked the Secretary of State to expedite the decision on the Development Consent Order so that work can commence without further delay. We have no more time to lose.”

It is not yet clear what impact the climate commitment ruling may have on the Manston application although the Secretary of State requested further clarification on RSP’s assessment of the carbon emissions contribution from Manston airport representing 1.9% from the total UK aviation emissions for 2050 and how net-zero emissions could be achieved.

The Climate Change Act 2008, as amended through the Climate Change Act 2008 (2050 Target Amendment) Order 2019, established a net-zero greenhouse gas emissions target in law by 2050.

Awaiting the decision

Manston airport site Photo Swift Aerial Photography

Submission of more comments and further information were made in January at the request of Secretary of State for Transport – Grant Schapps – before the decision  over the development consent order to create an air cargo hub at the Manston airport site is made.

The decision had been due on January 18 but a written statement to Parliament made by Nusrat Ghani, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport said the latest delay means the outcome is now due to be announced on May 18.

The four month delay was due to “enable further information on a range of issues to be provided by the applicant and other interested parties before determination by the Secretary of State,” according to the Under Secretary statement.

Last year the Planning Inspectorate examining panel, led by Kelvin McDonald, examined the bid made by Riveroak Strategic Partners (RSP) 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 before the hearings concluded.

In the latest documentation on the Planning Inspectorate website there were queries over unilateral undertakings with Kent County Council and Thanet council relating to the “appropriateness of RiverOak Fuels being the named party in those Undertakings,” and whether RSP’s contribution for the Air Quality Station ZH3 will ensure the Thanet Air Quality Management Area is not negatively impacted by the development.

Further areas included whether a 20 year contribution from RSP of £139,000 per year for schools affected by aircraft noise is adequate.

There were also queries raised about transport, including over controlled parking income and right of way improvements and the inclusion of a bus service enhancements scheme.

Confirmation of agreement to compulsory purchase a number of plots of land belonging to the Crown and companies including South Eastern Power Networks was also sought.

Comments were also invited on the revised wording of the draft DCO, including amendments to night flight restrictions and the need to provide an alternate High Resolution Direction Finder site.

DCO approval is needed for the cargo hub project. Supporters of the plan say it will bring jobs and economic benefits. Campaigners against the proposals say it will result in pollution, noise and a loss of tourist trade in Ramsgate which is under the flight path.

No Night Flights

A spokesperson for campaign group No Night Flights,opposed to the cargo hub plan for Manston, said: “With Heathrow’s expansion being stopped because of its unacceptable impact on the Government’s climate change commitments, it is stupefying that our local parliamentary representative could imagine that building a whole new airport should be a pressing plan B.

“Maybe it is less surprising when one considers Gale’s role as President of the Government’s All Party Parliamentary Group for general aviation. The Secretary of State himself last month asked the organisation that Gale is so keen to see build a new cargo airport for detailed environmental reports which had previously been unforthcoming.

“We have seen zero evidence of net zero carbon emissions. We know that leading advisors to the Department for Transport, York Aviation, are very clear that there is no business case for an additional airport in East Kent with capacity already available at Stansted and East Midlands; we are clear that a cargo hub would hurt thriving tourism in Thanet, damaging local employment prospects; and we are all, as a nation, very clear that we need to put the future of our planet ahead of building unnecessary new airports.”

Manston Skills & Employment & Board (MSE-B)

The Manston Skills & Employment & Board (MSE-B) met last week to discuss work on a range of training and education initiatives planned for the airport site.

The MSE-Board was established in January 2019 to consider the future employment and skills needs of the airport if Development Consent Order approval is gained from government this May.

The aim of the MSE-B is to ensure that Manston and associated businesses will have access to well-trained and experienced potential employees across a diverse range of skillsets. The MSE-B says it will do this by ensuring a comprehensive range of services are available to young people, job seekers and employers in the area around the airport.

Board representatives are RSP Manston director Tony Freudmann and consultant Dr Sally Dixon, of Azimuth Associates, as well as members from Dover, Canterbury and Kent councils, EKC, Canterbury Christ Church University/EDGE Hub, Kent and Medway Skills Commission, The Education People, Jobcentre Plus, Discovery Park and Thanet and East Kent Chamber of Commerce.

The MSE-B says board representation is available to unrepresented local councils and business sectors.

Dr Sally Dixon, who has led the MSE-B project, said: “Properly planning the future employment and skills needs of any major infrastructure project always requires a long term view and a collaborative approach. For Manston, this means working ahead of approval of the DCO to ensure both we and the local community will be ready.

“The commitment and partnership spirit of the organisations involved in the MSE Board has been fantastic from the outset and we are extremely grateful to them for their ongoing support. Together, we are determined to maximise the pipeline of talent, and training and employment opportunities to support a reopened Manston Airport and new and existing businesses in Thanet and East Kent.”

Interim Chair of the MSE-B, Paul Winter, who also chairs the Kent & Medway Skills Commission, said: “I am delighted to be involved in preparing East Kent for the reopening of the airport. The area has significant deprivation and the number and range of jobs that will be created is a game changer. Although the airport is not set to reopen until 2023, we have to move quickly if we are to ensure we have sufficient related local education and training, apprenticeships at all levels, and suitable careers advice for people of all ages.”

79 Comments

  1. So mr gale
    How are you going to bring the aviation fuel ? By tanker lol
    How are you going to get the haulage around the country? The little old thanet way and M2 lol
    How are you going to get haulage companies to come to want will be a very expensive airport to operate from in the bottom right hand corner of England? Bribe them ?

    Give it up manston is in the wrong place wake up and smell the gravy !

    • bit of bribery and corruption is all he is hell bent on with a solicitor struck off loads of times for fraud and was proved
      and he run the airport into worse case when he took over from the MOD with some kind of dodgy set up and sold to anne gloags brother brian souter of stage coach Infratil and based offshore leaks 50 Lothian Square is offshore money laundering and other crimes and yes proven just waiting to hear him call us all vexatious

    • he has his secret millions buried under the concrete at manston all his ex military ex oficos and they will bend a ruling for under ground drilling to drill for oil for the planes

      good question how will he bring fuel
      he will use his wifes wages n expenses and put them on the flight and borrow a sheik and say oi sheik da money lend us your fuel mate as I am all gassed out with EKH cause the stupid CEO did not check the boilers for over 18mths but paid illegal money to P and R and now to Gas Call

      • Are you some kind of green warrior who is deluded in thinking that east Kent doesn’t need the jobs the airport would generate GROW UP !

        • Nik Hayward- RSP say they want a cargo hub, which will be mainly automated. Nobody who doesn’t want an airport is any kind of warrior, but they know what the disadvantages of a 24/7 airport near Ramsgate would greatly outweigh the advantages.

    • Well Confused, this is how it will be done, There will be a Rail link right into Manston Airport for Passengers & Freight, Sidings for Marshalling Container wagons. Trains will bring in the oil, then take away Freight in containers at night, so there will be a very limited amount of lorry movements, this all to be connected to a new High Speed line from Manston to Ashford, London and beyond, this will also reduce the number of lorries on our Motorways, thus reducing our Carbon footprint on our planet.

    • Manston is a perfect place for cargo flights it will release the pressure on London Heathrow and Gatwick, it’s approach paths are perfect for less noise, as the approach from east coast is less crowded with residential area, lorries can get to Manston airport quite easily, and remember it was perfect for the RAF, and it was used as Kent International airport remember, it’s the not in my back yard group who complained and still they complain,I have flown from Manston airport and it’s a proper place for passenger and cargo flights and the airport was there before a lot of the complainers were born.

      • Cargo aircraft flying in over Ramsgate Harbour, 2 to 3 an hour, day and night, at just 300 meters height, destroying Ramsgate’s (Al Fresco) Tourist industry! These cargo planes (no passenger are planned) flying on over Ramsgate town at 250/200 meters, St Lawrence at 150/100 meters before landing, will destroy the value of property under the flights paths, and forget a good nights sleep! Schools won’t be able to operate with aircraft noise, and few if any jobs will go to locals, unless they know how to strip down a jet engine!

        Air pollution kills upwards of 40,000 people a year, so expect the local Funeral Parlours to be busy! Manston airstrip, is about two miles from Ramsgate town, with no infrastructure to shift thousands of tonnes of cargo by road, and not by Rail! No mention of a rail depot was made in the planning application as far as I am aware, in any case what rail company will pay to have trains standing around until it has a full load?

        Manston is ideal to build 4,000 new homes, with many being “affordable” complete with clinics, schools, leisure and business parks! Its a no brainer, instead Mackinlay, and Gale want to pollute Thanet promising jobs! Yeah right, just how many forklift truck drivers will it take on, when Thanet already has near full employment! This is a crazy idea, all to get Gale, and Mackinlay safe parliamentary seats for life!

        • If air pollution kills so many people per year how come smoking cigarettes and other filthy habits kill a hell of a lot more, aircraft engines are one of the cleanest burning engines at present, until electric and hydrogen powered aircraft are available, they certainly are not the worst, diesel engines are the worst then petrol, you can build thousands of houses but you need jobs for the residents, Manston airport can provide jobs and expansion is possible also,don’t believe the extinction rebellion fools they are just scaremongering for their actions in blaming us oldies for the climate change, climate change is a natural cycle of earth called the earth’s Procession and it’s a period of more than 25,000 years and during the cycle of earth the angle of axis changes further by almost 6 degrees tilt, so at half way through the cycle of Procession the angle of axis is almost 30 degrees tilt because the angle of axis is already at 23.5 degrees tilt, and the path of the sun across our skies changes so to does the suns ecliptic circle and temperatures will change more to either the northern hemisphere or the southern hemisphere also weather conditions will change, earthquakes will occur more often, tidal changes will occur more, volcanic activity will occur more, under sea volcanic activity will occur more, and as we know already the permafrost is melting in areas of Siberia and releasing methane gases from very deep underground decaying vegetation of millions and millions of years ago just like the land fill sites in our country and others all releasing gases into the atmosphere and carried into the jet stream and around the world, aircraft are alot cleaner than they were 50 years ago, yes I know what’s climate change got to do with Manston airport, nothing because climate change is a natural cycle of earth, do we see trees dying by the roadsides NO are the grass verges dying by the roadsides NO are we all going to be extinct in ten years NO unless our stupid politicians dragg our country in a third world war with the likes of Tony Blair, Manston airport has always been an airport and a good safety aspect for aircraft in need of a first choice of an emergency runway, creating the jobs at the airport first then building the houses for the employees etc, because you need jobs before house so you can pay the rent or mortgage, don’t listen to Thunberg or her deluded friends over climate change because the climate change is a natural cycle of earth,and nothing to do with human activity at all. Go for it Manston take the strain of Heathrow and Gatwick.

          • What you’re attempting to describe are the Milankovich Cycles, of which there are three principle cycles involving the attitude of the Earth to the Sun, and the variation in insolation resulting therefrom.
            These cycles are well understood by Earth Scientists and Climate Scientists.
            They do not account for the global rise in temperature since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. The burning of fossil fuels, however, shows a significant causal link.
            I’m afraid that you’ve read too much pseudoscience in a few of the more sensational daily newspapers.

          • I suggest you should take more water with it Paul, or ask your GP for a review of your medication! Thousands of expert scientists worldwide over the years have produced conclusive proof of climate change, so why deny it? There has always been extreme weather, but not as frequently as happens now! Most grown up countries have signed up to climate change happening! A great deal of GB is under water Paul, and millions suffer in the USA due to extreme, and more frequent hurricanes, and flooding, remember the floods in New Orleans a few years back? Many 3rd world countries are being devastated by drought, and wild out of control bush fires are doing the same in Australia! I am well into my eighth decade, and its too late for me, but good luck to all the millions of youngsters who are out there demonstrating to get more done to avert this world wide catastrophe!

        • What tourist industry
          What is there to do and see here
          Dereliction
          Sea front ruined
          Roads are full of pot holes
          Dog poo everywhere
          Litter
          Travellers with nowhere to stay

          Fanit

      • Paul Bee’s comment that “Manston is a perfect place for cargo flights” is not just wrong, it misses the point. The point is that Heathrow’s not getting a third runway because of environmental concerns. So a brand-new airport at Manston, logically speaking, will not get the go-ahead from Grant Shapp’s proxy.

        • Marva Rees, NO, Manston is perfect because I don’t have to fly across half the south coast to get to Heathrow or Gatwick over incredibly populated areas, Manston airport has a very good approach path and less populated, but yes politicians will be more against it unless they can get a golden handshake, I say no to expansion of Heathrow or Gatwick, stick to the coastline and improve the transport infrastructure like it was when we could get a train to almost everywhere, but politicians destroyed all that.

          • Perhaps you (Paul Bee) don’t have to fly at all. But no, Manston is not a perfect place for an airport, as has been proved by its previous incarnations.

          • No passenger flights are planned from Manston in the DCO application! Remember every attempt to use Manston for passengers failed, due to lack of demand! Duurh!

      • Release the pollution
        And its all phased shite
        You need the high speed and Manston green into this too
        Least not forget gale being on a group at government flying squad to conflict all this behind closed doors
        Freudman has more to meet the eye

  2. confused, more like bitter and twisted and not in the fullest of the facts. get a hobby like plane spotting as there will be many to spot sooner rather than later.

    • and train spotting with high speed 2 also under his wing
      but then he calls anyone that defies him vexatious and so do the council bunch of garbage
      a group set up there is not going to be employment because we do not need freight
      and what about the coronavirus half of the country have outbreaks
      what about ASF what kind of freight does not matter take the swines out of here and do some train spotting along with the billion pound scheme of yours too

    • no one is bitter and twisted
      at least I do not go under a false name and you speak about plane spotting have you seen the ones that leave chemtrials and it has been proven no myth like your name da plane boss

    • Ok, Mr Plane Boss: just how will aviation fuel be brought to Manston? Unlike proper commercial airports, Manston is not on the fuel pipeline grid.
      How will cargo hauliers be enticed here? A business case analysis by York Aviation concluded that in order to attract business here, Manston would have to charge such low rates that the investors (who they?) would get little or no return over decades, if ever.
      And, if freight is ever flown into or out of Manston, just how will it get to from the rest of the country?

  3. Sauce for the goose is sauce for the gosling. Heath Row is rightly banned from further polluting our world, so Manston must not be allowed to.

  4. OK Da plane boss!

    Instead of being rude why dont you answer the 3 points I raised ?

    Bring fuel is so expensive, being based in the bottom right hand corner of England, is going to be very expensive for haulage companies or freight companies.

    So please Da plane boss! Explain to me why I am wrong as it’s easy to be rude give us the facts that prove I am wrong

  5. I think the Heathrow ruling has dropped a bomb on all this boosterism from RSP and Gale knows it.
    Apart from the points above how is Manston going to be carbon neutral any time soon?
    How are the logistics to get goods to and from Manston going to be carbon neutral?
    Climate change may not yet have damaged Thanet, yet, but it will, and then perhaps people will stop listening to out of date fossils like Gale and start thinking about their grand children’s future and not cheap holidays to the EU.
    It maybe that this week has meant that unhindered and unhinged globalization is damaged and that green localism may be a better option all round.
    You can shout I believe in fairies as loud as you like (and the pro Manstonian fringe have been loud), but it does not mean that there are fairies or flights!

  6. “Manston has been an airport for more than a hundred years” Now I know he should retire. 1. an RAF station is an airfield silly man 2. in the 60 years of Commercial flight no one has ever made a profit at Manston and from 1959 to 1998 the RAF used public money to keep the commercial business afloat.
    As for the training the metaphor of them standing in front of a scrapper with no engines is rather apt don’t you think?

    • indeeed god help us another myth name
      do you really believe thanit has a god
      oh its Gale force winds here in thanit what with trains planes and
      think he must have forgotten the RIF RAF cause he thinks we are all vexatious cretins his words not mine
      public money was giving to the airport
      freudman sold it to brian souter the brother of stage coach billionaire anne gloag got into a fight with the chuckle brothers and lets all laugh at what money has been thrown at the airport
      sold by an offshore leaks auditor of Grant Thornton which by the way the government chose to have an offshore leaks auditor so money laundering and other crimes and yes I have done work on this and yes it is all true
      and then we have Infratil of 50 lothian square whilst it was creating jobs not, promising this and that investment but money was going offshore and yes been proven
      so the gale force 9 wind leaves with a batting of 1 and a COVID virus outbreak of freight and fuel and ASF swine flu that makes you mad from eating pork 66 million pigs culled in China least not forget China Gateway and EKO and the manston green and the dodgy developers at ramsgate seafront all offshore leaks Barbara Kahan linked to

      this is what your govenment do to your life and lives feck it all up for taking your taxes and investing your pension funds also in woodford but then your government invest your money criminally time we took our country back and no matter what colour you are stand up and be counted
      you voted for whoever but none of them could fly you to moon
      oops branson can
      he was at one time going to buy the airport but stole the NHS
      and how are the roads going to cope with more pollution ….only thing polluting is any form of council officer at fanit and any form of MP who can do crime and get away with murder

  7. Trying to move more British goods by aircraft would be an environmental disaster. The idea is “taking off” (no pun intended) because there is a big propaganda push to get us to think that we can replace up to half of our trade, which is with the EU, by trading with far-off places like America or India or even Australia.
    These places are thousands of miles away, whereas the EU is only 20 miles from Scotland (Ireland) and 20 miles from Kent (France).
    You can’t economically compete with EU trade by using aircraft to fly over EU countries to get somewhere else.
    Apart from being daft,( and probably a spiteful reaction to painful realities about Brexit), it would probably need huge aircraft based on airfields in the middle of Britain for ease of access around the country. Manston is stuck out on the far south-east, cut off from Britain by London and the M25. Any freight aircraft would have to fly OVER those barriers to get somewhere more central.

  8. Manston as an airport is dead in the water. If it wasn’t before then this court ruling confirms it. The UK Government and TDC both signing up to become Carbon Zero means they have to act consistently with those promises.

  9. Roger Gale made comments on the Heathrow decision supporting its refusal in the basis that it was detrimental to the health of people on the flight path in places like Chiswick (his own family). Such a shame that he does not consider the health of his own constituents, or indeed those in Thanet South in the same way.

  10. Quite unbelievable. Has Roger actually looked at the reason why the Heathrow expansion was refused. If anything this makes Manston re-opening either further from reality as I’m pretty sure RO have been awful on assessing the environmental impact of their proposed cargo hub. Planes are out now Roger, they are not good for the environment.

    • to them it is all about money
      offshore leaks
      Barbara Kahan
      pension funds pooled into investments for them to make a profit out of
      they are not credible and do not work for the people of thanit
      we are all in his eyes vexatious

  11. and I do not want chinese freight like you know they have ASF outbreak which is not in the news but should be and also corona virus and the whole world is being infected because of WUHAN ….no to China having any gateway

  12. It is even more important now that the DCO is refused for Manston. No additional airports or runways should be built if we are serious about achieving net zero by 2050. If Sir Roger had researched the subject fully he would already know that there is plenty of air freight capacity elsewhere in England. East Midlands airport is just one example which has capacity and is well located unlike Manston.
    This frivolous application from RSP needs to be canned now and allow Thanet and East Kent to create real and sustainable jobs in sectors that do not threaten the future of our planet.

  13. To read some of the negative comments on here is unbelievable I know some of those who think nothing of Polluting the motorways driving to Gatwick and Heathrow to go on their holidays. Manston will be what is has always been an Airport…….Get over it.

    • Get over what?
      Manston has only been an airport for a dozen years. Get over it.
      It’s always failed. Get over it.
      The bloke in charge of RSP is a serial failure and embezzler. Get over it.
      Every informed opinion says aviation at Manston won’t work.
      Get over it and move on.

      • Well said. At last we seem to be getting some vital investment(like Wetherspoons) in Ramsgate, the poor relative of Margate. If Manston goes ahead any new investors will pull out and we’ll go back to being Margate’s relative.

    • I would have thought that not having a noisy dirty and environmentally damaging airport on our doorstep was quite a positive thing?

    • Ann “Manston will be what is has always been an Airport…….Get over it.”

      An airport at Manston is a mere blip in the history of an area occupied since the Bronze Age, 3000 years !!

  14. I am sure Mr Gale will want the DCO rushed through now after the Heathrow runway refusal in court. He doesn’t care about any of his constituents in North Thanet or even those in the neighbouring constituency of his partner Craig Mackinlay, if he does then why did he do nothing to save the stroke unit at the QEQM hospital. He was in fact saying last week it is good for Thanet that the stroke unit is going to Ashford. That was not a sane thing to be saying on camera. It is about time the chap resigned like he promised to two years ago. But then you cannot believe a word he says. He is not helping the residents of Thanet at all, just his business mate Tony Freudmman.

  15. If we are against the airport opening which I am I put forward points that in my eyes are good reasons for it not opening. The pro manston just call us names or say we should move and that we are negative.
    So for the pros manston answer some obvious question , something the pros dont like doing

    1, how are you going to bring fuel in at a competitive price ( certainly not by tanker to expansive)
    2, basing a haulage company at manston is going to be very expensive, spending good hour just to get the the carpark M25
    3, No decent roads both M2, thanet way only have 2 lanes.
    4, No rail freight, no railway lines.
    5, how are you going to convince companies to move from Midlands airport which is in the middle of the country ?
    6, manston has never made money as a stand alone airport, what is different this time ?

    Just a few questions to get the pro manston supports to answer, politely please. You have your chance to prove I am what you think I am I look forward to your answers

  16. Rebecca Hooper, I feel that you raise some interesting and perhaps valid points.

    However, your lack of grammar and punctuation make it pretty much impossible to decipher exactly what it is you are trying to express.

  17. A couple of obstacles to Mr Gale’s hopes:
    The DoT has it tied up till Dec 2020;
    RSP have no CAA licence;
    there’s the small but unresolved matter of the MoD’s High Resolution Direction Finder Aerial.

  18. Gale is obsessed with Manston anybody with half a brain can see it is dead and gone. Anybody would think that he is on RSP wages. FFS let it finally rest in peace and give us all a break

  19. In 2018 this was TDC submission to Manston National Planning Examination.

    “The site lies entirely within the catchment of the Source Protection Zone (SPZ) for the Lord of the Manor groundwater abstraction. This abstraction, which is a significant groundwater resource, relies substantially on an adit in the Chalk which runs below the existing runway, approximately 50m below the site. The runway and part of the site are in SPZ Zone 1, and the south-central and south-east part of the site is in SPZ Zone 2.
    4.5.7 The Chalk aquifer derives its permeability from secondary permeability (fracture flow) and is therefore highly susceptible to pollution due to rapid transport of dissolved and particulate contaminants through fracture networks. Groundwater from the chalk rock beneath Thanet is used to supply water for drinking water, agriculture, horticulture and industry. It also feeds the springs that emerge along the coast and near the marshes. The groundwater is extremely vulnerable to contamination as substances (natural substances and man-made chemicals) are able to pass rapidly through the thin soils and the natural fissures (cracks) in the chalk rock to the groundwater below the ground surface.
    4.5.8 It is considered that the former land use is likely to have resulted in potentially significant land quality impacts, particularly in the runway area where Fog Investigation and Dispersal Operation (FIDO) was carried out and runway foams were used. This method for clearing fog was used during the Second World War and was installed at Manston Airport. The FIDO system used the burning of fuel either side of the runway to disperse fog to enable aircraft to land safely.
    4.5.9 The previous use of chlorinated solvents and radiological materials are also potentially significant issues that may be present and complex to deal with as well as the potential for asbestos to be present in soils (possibly in deliberate disposal pits of significant volume). The adit under the runway which feeds the Lord of the Manor PWS is a highly sensitive receptor protecting this receptor may require rephrasing or redesign of the scheme once the distribution of contamination is better understood.
    4.5.10 The Lord of the Manor PWS is not identified as a separate receptor. This is an omission and should be included, due to the presence of an adit which feeds the PWS directly below the runway. Specific measures may be needed to protect this receptor that would not apply to the wider aquifer.
    4.5.11 A County-wide Contaminated Land Strategy is being prepared by the Kent & Medway Contaminated Land Forum and will form part of the evidence base for this Plan once it has been finalised. The Council has a Contaminated Land Strategy for the district – this is currently being reviewed”

    I think Sir Rog is egging it a bit. Shovel ready ?? And he has DEFRA enforcement of UN Stockholm Convention for Persistent Organic Pollutants, which starts soon, to consider.

    Will Rog and Suzi be watching Mark Ruffalo in “Dark Waters” ? About the toxic residue of firefighting foam “PFOA” And if the Jersey airport and air crash model is anything to go by how much excavation will be required after the runway is lifted and removed ?

  20. It seems to me that the same legal arguments used to stop the third runway at Heathrow apply to reopening Manston. If you can’t build another runway because of your commitments to alleviating climate change, the court will most certainly take a dim view of an attempt to circumvent the ruling by reopening old dilapidated airfields (of which there are many).

  21. So manston would have polluting aircraft flying in and out .
    Fuel brought in and returning empty adding to pollution.
    Than the HGV to haul the goods coming and going adding to the pollution.
    A poor thanetway and M2 slow moving traffic adding to the pollution.

  22. Given that Roger is the self confessed spokesperson for RSP and, it would appear, he doesn’t understand the difference between an airfield and an airport, will the IOTN run a counter article from the many community groups vehemently opposed to this monstrous cargo hub?

    Let’s start by asking TDC, Ramsgate Town Council, NNF and Nethercourt Action Group shall we? For starters.

    There is a list longer than my arm of proper, evidenced based reasoning why this incomplete and incompetent DCO isn’t viable or needed and yet here we are, suffering the cheerleading enthusiasm of the MP for Thanet North and endless articles in support.

    Why does the MP have a louder voice than the silent majority?

    Why is the silent majority denied a voice?

    I’m also volunteering to write an opinion piece if you can’t get any of the groups I suggest above to comment.

    Say no to the monstrous DCO.

  23. Whichever happens we will either have houses or an airport both have pros and cons.Seems to me people have plenty of opinions but no one has any solutions.

    • One of the enduring misconceptions about Manston is that it is *either* airport *or* houses.
      Not so.
      It was, and is the case that it’s *either* airport plus houses (we get them whatever) *or* just the houses.

  24. Tripod

    Why hasnt any of this been made public ?

    I thought it was freight only we havent we been told its passengers as well ?

    I didnt know a train station and goods yard and a rail link was being put into manston, why hasnt this been made public.

    I didnt know the aviation fuel was being brought in my train, why hasnt it been made public.

    So going by what Tripod says we have all been lied to as a freight yard and rail link is being built to manston, along with it now being a passenger hub as well !!

  25. Roger Gale the self confessed MP for Riveroak. Hasn’t the idiot realised what is good for Heathrow stands for Manston as that will be a major polluter too ? A few trees planted in Ramsgate won’t offset the CO2 NO2 and particulates produced by jet engines and lorries needed to service a cargo hub. All those thinking there will be passenger flights need to look at the DCO and CAA scoping done by RSP. All strictly cargo flights.

  26. Shapps the DfT SOS supposedily has recused himself from the Manston DCO is Gale now saying he hasn’t and will make the decision after all ?

  27. Absolutely wetting myself over the comments by Tripod. The notion that aviation fuel will be transported on a high-speed passenger line is so ridiculous it’s hard to believe that someone believes it. The plans for Manston Parkway and RSP’s plans for Manston are there for all to see. There’s no branch going off to the airport and there’s no application for an expanded passenger terminal. Tripod’s contribution is based on nothing more than wishful thinking.

  28. Look at history
    Freudman buys from mod
    He came into financial difficulty both with running airport
    He wanted to build houses then that failed
    He sold via offshore leaks Grant Thornton to Brian Souter of offshore leaks infratil who gives his £1 to his sister Anne G of stagecoach but infratil was stagecoach with many subsidiaries all offshore leaks.
    Buys back from offshore leaks but only recently set up a company
    With no financial history or years of… Years of criminalities

    Gale should not be allowed to get involved he sits on the aviation Committee at government he has friendship with a fraudster who was struck off and involved in embezzlement
    Whilst I want some kind of action
    These people have ruined Manston and there is more to Freudman not in a nice way but Gale calls us all vexatious he don’t care
    What deal is going on is secret…

    People died at Manston
    Can’t we build a RAf hotel, hangar style and do local flights
    Make it a better Manston something where people want to visit
    Where is an tourist attraction on a freight shite
    It would be run by us… Yeah what happened to us having the ownership
    It needs better than freight
    Raf hotel Raf flying museum as Manston Airport has loads of history
    Raf school…. Still with no night flights

  29. my humble opinion ! and i prefer the airport to return.
    Fuel storage can be arranged,either a pipe line from our commercial port via bunkering tankers (bunkering tankers refuel all the cross channel ferries with oil,lpg,any fuel can be ferried.2020 etc)
    Fuel supply via bunker tankers from our existing commercial working port to storage facilities on the airport landscape is easily possible.

    hey i would love to see in my lifetime our disused ports (air&land plane) brought back into use.

    If only i was allowed a say in decisions but as a thanet resident i am not flipper flip all but i await reply from the decision makers.

    hey dont let the flipper flips all dominate (proper) local decision.

    Love ramsgate,

  30. hey i would love to see in my lifetime our disused ports (air&land plane) brought back into use.

    Love thanet & all the people.

  31. The only shovel ready is the one Sir Roger uses to dish out his interminable bullshit

    Maybe Roger should read the DCO application he is supporting which shows it will be at least three years before RSP can move so much as rake, let alone a penny, on Manston on account of the following:

    1/ RSP do not have any airspace to actually fly aircraft in (if they actually had any aircraft, which they don’t). The CAA application process will take two and a half years and will be heavily contested by existing airports. No airspace means no airport.

    2/ The MOD have objected to the DCO application on account of RSP having to move the HRDF (High Resolution Direction Finder) but doing nothing about it since 2016. In 2019 Freudmann lied to the Planning Inspectors when he told them he had negotiated a new location to put the HRDF which forms part of the UK’s national security monitoring system. Unfortunately, the owners of the land he cited told the MOD they’d never had any contact with RSP. Naughty Freudmann. The truth is, if Freudmann ever gets round to buying a site for a new HRDF, it will take another 3 years for the equipment be tested and approved by the MOD. Even then it may be rejected. No approval means no airport.

    So 2023 at the earliest before they can claim airport status. Until then no serious investor – or his shovel – will touch the site.

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