Second legal challenge bid against Manston airport development permission is dismissed

179 Comments

1. Great news 👏

   • Good news indeed. Manston Airport has never been properly run nor have previous District Councils made the appropriate developments to ensure its success. Labour has specifically been anti-airport. As a businessman I know that with creative, imaginative and positive development the Airport could support directly and indirectly employ upwards of 500 people with families to support. The majority of Ramsgate people support the Airport but they’ve been dinned out by the noisy, half-empty nimbys who had the money but cared little for those familes whose livelihoods would changed for the better.

2. Great news. Manston airfield is here to stay. I look forward to the sound of aircraft over Thanet. DFLs please note.

   • It would be the only one since WW2 to last.

     • Not heard of Biggin Hill?

   • DFLs were your only chance of lifting this place out of generations of despair. Enjoy your noisy, ill-health-ridden nostril of Thanet

     • Penny Wise rubbish I’m a DFL been here over 20 years I am delighted with the decision made to reject the JR.

3. Great news and about time.

4. Fantastic news for Thanet but especially for the youth of today.

   • On the contrary, the youth of today need housing and all this ill fated project does is delay the inevitable.. that this airfield will eventually be turned over to housing once it has failed again.

     • Paul, why don’t you concrete over the whole of England? No more farmland and no more open spaces. The youth of today will be priced out of the housing market and left competing against illegal migrants and greedy property developers.

       • Why are you such a grouch. Your “project fear” worked with Brexit is that why you think it will work again.
         Less that 6% of and in the UK is housing

         • I was always anti-Brexit. No “Project Fear” from me. Are we never to mention illegal migration, for that is what it really is?
           There are many vacant properties in the UK and compulsory purchasing would solve the problem. Our own citizens should come first.

   • Why? The promised jobs for locals from every operator there from 1998-2014 failed to materialise.

   • Great news for the youth?! Yes I’m really celebrating all the children of Ramsgate and beyond having their school classes disrupted up to every 10 minutes by low-flying noisy old cargo planes. Lucky them! Not to mention the short and long term terrible health outcomes caused by aviation pollution – air and water. Fab! AND they get to enjoy zero future job prospects in this potentially beautiful town because no one wants to visit a noisy, polluted sh&thole. BRILLIANT news for the youth

     • I went to minster school, aircraft noise never affected my time at school, I also lived less than 300 yards from runway, again noise was never a problem, loved seeing the planes including the RAF and other visiting military aircraft, also the search and rescue helicopters that flew over regularly, even got a wave from the winchmen. Looking forward to seeing the aircraft return.

       • JR… it has never been a cargo airport before. All iterations were very sporadic flights. This proposal is for big noisy polluting planes up to every 10 mins. Totally different to your nostalgic schoolboy days.

         • Penny Wise, you display your ignorance when sneering at JR’s school days and his reminiscences. I remember the V-bombers landing at Manston frequently. The Victor, Valiant and Vulcan. You could see them from the Haine Road, parked and ready. I was a schoolboy then and loved the sound of any one of them taking to the runway and blasting off. It was one of the loudest sounds I had ever heard, like the heavens opening up.
           You worry about “big noisy polluting planes” but you never heard the roar of a Vulcan bomber. No one came down from London to protest against these giants of the Cold War. They were magnificent to a young Air Cadet (Manston Flight, 438 Squadron) like me who found it all fascinating. Whatever happened to nostalgia?

       • Unfortunately liking seeing planes fly over is not the basis for a business.

5. The wheels of justice grind on slowly but we got there in the end. Ramsgate Town Council was wrong … the reason I no longer vote at the ballot box.

   • Great news. It must be hoped beyond measure that Miss Jenny Dawes now accepts that her campaign, doubtless done with the sincerest of intentions, is no longer justified nor welcomed.Just remember at the next local elections that the vast majority of Ramsgate councillors were complicit in trying to block Manston’s rejuvenation plans, even pledging £5k of our money – with the promise of a further £5k if needed. When voters enter the polling booths, look for those councillors’ names on the list and vote according to your conscience.

     • Thats a very valid comment and well said. Ta

6. 😂😂😂

   • Lost for words, Harry?

7. Brilliant news.

8. This is great news for thanet couldn’t be happier

9. There will be some screaming banshees this morning after reading this news.

10. Whilst I am broadly in favour of Manston airfield on economic grounds, I am afraid that it will fail.. just like all the previous times (Freudmann should know, he was involved with one of them!)

    The indepedent report by aviation specialist Alan Stratford and Associates made that quite clear!

    This will all become housing in the end, really people should just throw in the towel and accept it, then at least less farmland will be built on in the mean time.

11. This isn’t great news. You have all been duped if you think this is going to supply anywhere near the amount of jobs to offset the death of Ramsgate’s tourist industry and money coming in from London. Huge condolences to all the sensible Ramsgate residents who fought this idiocy and its devastating effects. To the rest of the pro-Manston fanatics, well you get what you deserve (IF it ever happens) – a heavily polluting, noisy town-killing eyesore that may provide about 50 jobs max (as it’s fully automated) – putting 100s out of work and making countless others sick. It’s like you’re addicted to living in sh&t? Well done. Slow clap.

    • People in Thanet just believe the same old lies over & over again. It will like all those in the past heavily automated & the promised local jobs will not happen.

    • Penny Wise, can you name any nationally significant airport development that has not been hugely profitable for its local authority revenues and its local economy generally?

      • Dr Pritchard, are you insinuating Manston has EVER been an airport of national significance?! Because it hasn’t, it’s lost money on every iteration. And circumstances are only worse this time around. But don’t take my word for it – only every (non-bias) aviation expert, including the one commissioned by the gov has agreed. I’m afraid the good doctor, you’ve been had

      • Dr Pritchard can you name any airport operator at Manston that hasn’t lost money, wasted taxpayer money & left?

      • Yes, Manston x3 attempts.

12. Whilst I am broadly in favour of Manston airfield on economic grounds, I am afraid that it will fail.. just like all the previous times.

    The indepedent report by aviation specialist Alan Stratford & Associates made that quite clear!

    This will all become housing in the end, really people should just throw in the towel and accept it, then at least less farmland will be built on in the mean time.

    • Absolutely 100% agree. People refuse to see the reality because of misguided “romantic” notions of “it was always an airport”. Well England was always a green and pleasant land. Until it wasn’t.

    • Surely if the owner is convinced they can make a go of running an airfield and they have the finances to do so and they have the legal authority to go ahead , they should have the opportunity to do as they see fit. If subsequently it fails then a new use will be found in due course.

      • “if they have the finances” LOL
        TF promoted “Planestation” in 2003 and look what happened with his promotion

        • God help us, when TF was involved with Planestation, the Board refused to develop it as a cargo hub as TF proposed. The Board and Chairman pursued a different vision, as a relatively small regional passenger airport, and that vision failed.

          • Dr Prichard, can you please list TF’s list of successful airport developments?

            Developments from any country will be acceptable.

    • Is it not about time people of thanet had some hope of a glint of faith of a bright new future,instead of accepting our guest houses and hotels are forever going to be a hub for illegal imigrants and state dependants a glint of hope for our young and yet to be born the residents people need hope not constant gloom have lived here in ramsgate and surrounding area in my seventies i welcome it commonsense for a change hope not gloom and doom for a change is welcomed 👍 now for the next round of protest doom and gloom metings rallies ect, and thanet life rolls on and on and on

13. Great news , wonder what Jenny Dawes will do now .
    No doubt she will file an appeal which also will be thrown out.
    And waste money just like she already has on this 2nd attempt to block .

    • Thank goodness for people like Jenny. Smart and well-informed, trying to save people like you from terrible decisions that leave everyone worse off, apart from a few greedy developers

      • I used to love watching the planes while strolling or cycling around Thanet. It will be lovely to see them again.

        • Except you don’t live under the flightpath. Do you?

          • Unfortunately, not. That’s why I had to walk, cycle (etc) to see them. I do know plenty of people in Thanet who ARE under the flight path though, and they miss them too.

            What are your thoughts on the subject?

          • Yes we do live under the flight path and was always a pleasure to witness the flights.

            We need DFLs to integrate not destroy our pleasant Thanet.

          • I’m an integrated DFL (though I have had 38 years to do it!).

          • So was your property not under the flight path when the airport was open the last time?

          • I live under the flight path and to be fair like everything else after a while you don’t notice it.

          • Exactly, Shamac. I live beside a railway, but barely notice the trains any more.

        • Well if it gives Peter something else to do rather than posting continually on IoTN then there might be an upside.

    • Filing an appeal against refusal will be problematical. Her first stage would be to apply for a half-hour hearing before the judge who refused her Application for Permission to APPLY for judicial review. There’s the matter of costs. There will undoubtedly be an award of costs payable by the Appellant to the Defendant (the Government) AND costs payable to the Interested Party (RiverOak Strategic Partners), and THEN costs payable to her own lawyers. That is quite a handful of barristers and solicitors, and those representing the Government and RiverOak are tops in their fields. Meanwhile, Jenny Dawes will need to take further legal advice about her chances of success in going for a half-hour hearing to persuade the judge to change his mind and allow a Judicial Review to go the full distance in the High Court. We cannot assess that without reading the Decision he reached refusing Permission to Proceed or Amend. During that half hour hearing, her lawyers will have to share that time with lawyers from the Government and from the Interested Party. Will she have the money to take it further forward? If it were to go to full trial before the High Court, her lawyers would have to take time to prepare and make their doubtless amended submissions. So would lawyers representing the Government and RiverOak. They would expect assurances that the Appellant had the means to cover costs. Perhaps she and her husband own a home held as Joint Tenants with sufficient equity to cover those costs. Perhaps they are multi-millionaires. I wouldn’t care to speculate on that. I rather expect that they have come to the end of the road when it comes to taking this case further. They may even decide to move away to somewhere else.

      • Are you the same Dr. R. John Pritchard that said Ms Dawes would never get her original JR? The one she won?

        • Yes. The Government agreed that the issue of need had not been clearly enough set out,not that it didn’t exist. Actually,there was no need to set it out extensively as the Examining Authority had applied the wrong test. The test applied was in relation to the situation when the issue of Compulsory Acquisition had weight. It lost that weight after RSP bought the airport land just before the Examination ended. The Government became over-cautious and RSP had a long and expensive setback. Amending a DCO Decision Letter is only possible through quashing even a perfectly sound Development Consent ORDER and re-deciding from scratcy: a crazy quirk in the Planning Act 2008. The new Decision Letter addressed all the points at issue at greater length and after absurdly prolonged consultation exercises. New policy documents were issued but notably no formal Airport National Policy Statement. The end result is that the new Decision Letter was far more robust but the ORDER (a statutory instrument) was identical in wording except in the way the footnotes were numbered. So yes,the first DCO letter was sound. And at the time when the Government withdrew the first Order it had been unprecedented for ANY consented DCO to be quashed,as I well knew, Phyllis Quot!

      • Or maybe a lot of other people can and will contribute so that Mrs Dawes won’t face penuary and homelessness like you are clearly hoping for.

        • She can kip in my shed if she wants. I’m not vindictive.

14. YES!!! : )))

    • Kentish man, by getting DFLs to “integrate” do you mean, quit their jobs, go on benefits, start chain-smoking and scream at their kids? Yes! So much more agreeable than open up useful businesses, regenerate rundown areas and save old crumbling building left to rot by the wonderful council. And campaign for the greater good against this idiotic decision on Manston. How dare those DFLs plough their money into the local economy. As bad as foreigners, aren’t they?

      • I like the kind of people who say “Good Morning” to strangers or chat at bus stops, and people from London tend not to do that. Took me a few years to adapt! How about you, Ms. Wise?

        • Peter Checksfield, I spend a good part of my life on local buses (and campaigning for a better service), will happily talk to all and sundry and have friends in both “camps”. The point is, there shouldn’t BE camps and “them and us”. People move freely around the UK and all bring new views and insights and energy. Talk of “integration” is BS. Thanet isn’t another planet… oh wait…

          • As a “local DFL”, I agree totally.

          • Penny Wise,
            You are a busybody. Always interfering in others’ lives.
            Rein it in, please.

      • Twisting the narrative.

15. Lets stop this total waste of money with these JR’s.
    Get Manston Airport up and running ASAP and if the Snowflakes don’t like it, then move.

    • John558, if you miss the noise pollution that much why don’t you JUST MOVE to a nice flight path under Heathrow? The just move comment is so rude… people have a right to a peaceful, healthy existence. If you don’t agree MOVE (or continue waiting for the umpteen years it’ll take to get Manston off the ground. For it to fail. AGAIN

      • He doesn’t need to move if he likes planes. What you said doesn’t make sense.

16. No more judicial reviews means campaigning against Manston is now all wind and p*ss. All of this negativity on here is pointless. Embrace an operating cargo hub and enjoy the prestige it brings with it.

    • Also, no more migrant camp!

      • Peter.. the ‘migrant camp’ isn’t on the airport land… it’s on MOD land opposite the Northern Grass.. so your comment isn’t applicable.

        • They’ll be complaining about the noise and demand something better!

    • I think the correct term is accept it & wait for it to fail like all the others & the KCC & independent reports-who both said it is nonviable. There is no prestige.

17. I think sadly now is the time to just bow out-with this government you are wasting your time & money. Better to let this lot build it, watch it flop after 5 years or so like all the rest & then wait for another asset stripper to buy it for a quid.

    Then we start the whole process over again with all the cheerleaders falling for the false promises.

    • A bit like Dreamland then? Yet everyone (except me) welcomed money being pumped into it.

      • You weren’t alone on that one, I thought it was a total waste of money & badly thought out & implemented/rushed. They opened while it was still being developed.

18. Ok, great news, now let’s get on with it, we need the jobs, investment for today and the future.
    The DFL’s against Manston Airport re-opening have been served notice.

    • You must have missed every airport failing there for decades. KCC made it quite clear in their mid 2010’s report that the massive number of local jobs promised by every owner since 1998 failed to happen so why do you keep believing these lies & begging for more? Every operator there bled money & they wasted vast sums of taxpayer cash on it & never would again. I quote below.

      Since the Ministry of Defence sold RAF Manston in 1998, the airport has never made a profit and has never delivered on its promise of jobs for the area. When the airport closed on 15th May 2014 144 people were employed there.

      Since 1998 three companies have tried and failed to run Manston as a viable business. The Wiggins Group, with its start-up low cost carrier EUJet, launched scheduled flights to twenty one destinations in Europe in 2004 but collapsed
      into administration in the summer of 2005 leaving 5,400 passengers stranded. Its fleet of five 108-seat Fokker 100 jets were repossessed by Debis Air Finance.

      Infratil Limited, which bought Manston from the administrators in 2005, lost between £40 – £50 million over the next nine years attempting to achieve passenger numbers of over a million per annum. The highest number of passengers was 50,000. Similarly its ambitious plan to grow freight traffic failed.

      Lothian Shelf (417) Limited, a company owned by Mrs Ann Gloag, bought Manston for £1 in November 2014. In the next 4 months the airport made revenue losses of £100,000 per week plus significant capital losses. Mrs Gloag’s decision to sell the airport was based on an assessment that these losses could not be sustained.

      Our support for Manston has not merely consisted of kind words and encouragement. We have invested substantial sums of public money. We have made substantial investments in both road and rail infrastructure to improve access to Manston and East Kent.

      Our record in supporting Manston is plain to see and we are proud of it.
      It was disappointing and regrettable to learn that all our hard work and investment, and the hard work of the various companies that had tried to make flying profitable at Manston, had failed.

      The truth is that Manston has failed over a prolonged period of time to run as a
      commercially successful airport. Kent County Council gave strong support to various investors but the reality of commercial aviation at Manston airport led to very significant losses.

      In fact, in the 16 years since it was taken into privately ownership it has incurred losses by those who have tried to operate it in excess of
      £100 million.

      • Steve, your concerns and speculations are a matter for you. They will have no weight in relation to what Jenny Dawes must think about in considering what to do now. Are you seeking to persuade RiverOak, who have already expended something North of £40 million in taking this forward thus far? Even if they were minded to walk away (and I see no sign of that at all), the value of their property and its unencumbered and likely now unchallengeable development consent, would be enormous even if RiverOak looked to find a buyer for the airport. However, the truth is that RiverOak are committed to making a success of this airport, there will be no shortage of investors to see its potential fulfilled. The past record of the airport in private hands is pretty irrelevant as there was never any commitment before to turn it into a cargo hub. If there had been, there would not only be one cargo stand and four passenger stands at the airport, and there would have been warehousing on the premises devoted to making use of it as a cargo hub. Tony Freudmann and Dr. Sally Dixon long ago came to believe that it was best suited to be a cargo hub airport. Others had a different vision in the past and failed. Their investors agree. The case for the cargo hub has been found persuasive by the Government, twice now, and as Thanet and East Kent stand to benefit from that, that worthy of celebration.

        • River Oak can waste their money as they please-as long as it is their money as promised & not the taxpayers money like the 1998-2014 fiascos.

          Both KCC in 2015 & an independent report a couple of years back came to the same conclusion-over 100 million lost during that period, it is totally nonviable as an airport, there is no demand for it & it is not sustainable.

          Unlike KCC & the independent investigators Freudmann is hardly impartial is he? His history is with Planestation, Annax Aviation, FT International & for the last six & a half years as the main board director at Riveroak.

          Dixon works as a consultant for Riveroak & as the leader of Azimuth Associates she ‘provides critical insights to support the development of a robust, strategic approach to development and investment in the global aviation industry’ So yes, clearly like Freudmann she has a vested interest in Manston going ahead.

          https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/officers/cDnDfKIF-Mqna9n_Wkguq4HIC4s/appointments

          http://azimuthassociates.co.uk/

          https://infrastructure.planninginspectorate.gov.uk/wp-content/ipc/uploads/projects/TR020002/TR020002-003575-No%20Night%20Flights%20-%20Comments%20on%20Responses%20to%20the%20ExA%27s%20WQs.pdf

        • Is this the same Tony Freudmann who led operations at the airport from 1997 to 2004? Talk about money for old rope-he totally failed for the best part of a decade & here is back again for another payday.

          2.5.1 Historically employment and economic benefits of the airport have
          always been very optimistic and have consistently failed to materialise.
          After 15 years operating as an airport in private hands, this 720 acre site

          peaked at just 144 mostly part-time jobs.

          • 2001 Tony Freudmann’s team at Wiggins promised that there would be
          6,000 jobs at Manston by 2010.
          • 2001 Wiggins backtracked and said that this would not be achieved until
          2017.
          • 2008 Infratil predicted 3,500 jobs by 2018 and 7,500 jobs by 2033.
          • 2009 Infratil revised this down to 2,800 jobs by 2018 and 6,000 by 2033.

          You couldn’t make this stuff up, here he & his buddies at RO are making the same promises again-when he already backtracked & defaulted on them starting just months in, how can anybody believe this nonsense? I get those on the payroll shilling for it, but the public must be the most gullible marks around after decades of these porkies. 6,000 jobs ended up being 150 odd.

    • The DFL’S as you call them have invested in the local community by living there. I really don’t know why people are so anti “Down From London”
      The airport will never succeed as it’s history has shown.

      • Simply, it’s envy. Unhappy about people with more money but not too unhappy about it that they’d like to get a job and make things better. Add a few drops of xenophobia (demonstrated by UKIP victories in elections…) and you have “Ramsgate Man”…

        • That’s why I’d never live there.

19. Delighted to learn of this excellent news.

    To the objectors of Manston, you can always move elsewhere that suits your narrative.

    The decision was/is democratic, simple.

    • A bit like winning Brexit and the Boris Johnson landslide in the last election, some people only like democracy when it suits them.

      • Took people a long reason to work out all the lies Bozza told & then locked them in their homes for months, stopped them from seeing dying relatives & had them arrested by the police if they disobeyed, while he was throwing drunken orgies at No 10.

        This not interfering in peoples lives party has of course done more electronic snooping than ever, tried to ban people from viewing adult material & now are trying to ban protests-under the guise of the eco loonies, but really to stop people protesting at themselves & now trying to censor the internet.

      • lol. I only came here for the comments 😅thank you.

      • Bu….but you voted Green, Peter? As you continuously like to bore people with on a daily basis. A Tory only when it suits you eh?

        • Absolutely. More people should vote on party’s ever-changing policies rather than automatically support just the one. For what it’s worth, I will NOT be voting for Sir Roger Gale next time. His policy of quickly emptying the migrant camp and putting them in good hotels is both a disaster for many small towns, and not fair on our own homeless.

          (and I’m pretty sure he doesn’t)

      • I think this will be very similar to Brexit with a long future of ‘I told you so’. Also as the wild promises fail to materialise supporters will resort to personal abuse.

        • Brexit was never fully implemented, we got just “Brexit lite” (ask Nigel). So, combined with a global pandemic and war in Europe, we haven’t reaped the full rewards. I still don’t regret my vote though.

          • What wasn’t fully implemented? The UK left the EU :no CU no SM no EFTA no Norway deal.

          • Ask Nigel.

          • Agree entirely… Brexit has been effectively stopped by the treachery of the majority of MP’s and the Lords in parliament and the entire civil service – along with every single remoaner who don’t believe in democracy. One day the remoaners will table and win a vote and see that overturned. I can’t wait for that day.

            In the meantime Manston opening up again in the best news since leave won the referendum.

            Don’t want to live under a flight path? Please consider moving away.

    • No need to Kentish Man, even if it does eventually open & it had better do so before Labour get in & cancel it, then it will be yet another in the long list of failed airports there going back decades & will be gone most likely five years after opening.

    • People can’t just move can they? Very few have the luxury of being able to upsticks, even if their health and that of their children’s is at risk. It’s totally false to believe it’s a new DFL issue!! I lived under the active flight path for years and absolutely hated it. It was HEAVEN when Manston closed. I also know the debilitating effects of air pollution and that of the run-off of the chemicals on the ground. I actually believe people are blindly championing the return of Manston to simply p£ss of DFLs?! A bit of living under adverse conditions should bring them down a peg or two, eh?

      • Bring us down a peg or two? Who the hell do you think you are? We are not children nor are we mental defectives. Your patronising attitude towards those who oppose your views is a disgrace. Manston is here to stay so get used to it or do the other thing.

        • No Robert. Not bring YOU down a peg or two. That’s clearly not required. If you read my comment calmly, it says having the pesky DFLs living under some adverse conditions will bring THEM down a peg or two. Then we’ll all be in the same bottom-pegged boat.

          • Nothing personal, Penny Wise. I have no intention of going there.
            You said, “I actually believe people are blindly championing the return of Manston to simply p*ss of DFLs?! A bit of living under adverse conditions should bring them down a peg or two, eh?”
            The sentences are split. No mention of pesky DFLs. Then a new sentence after a question mark and an exclamation mark. “Bring them down” would imply the likes of me, as it is unfriendly.

      • No, people really are that stupid that they believe the same lies from the same guy who made them over 20 years ago.

        2.5.1 Historically employment and economic benefits of the airport have
        always been very optimistic and have consistently failed to materialise.
        After 15 years operating as an airport in private hands, this 720 acre site
        peaked at just 144 mostly part-time jobs.

        • 2001 Tony Freudmann’s team at Wiggins promised that there would be
        6,000 jobs at Manston by 2010.
        • 2001 Wiggins backtracked and said that this would not be achieved until
        2017.
        • 2008 Infratil predicted 3,500 jobs by 2018 and 7,500 jobs by 2033.
        • 2009 Infratil revised this down to 2,800 jobs by 2018 and 6,000 by 2033.

        Actual number-144, mostly part time jobs & yet here we are with people still falling for it.

20. Thread needs more beef. 0/10

21. The process still isn’t over Jenny Dawes can still apply to the court for an oral hearing and still get a judicial review. Whatever happens there will never be planes taking off from Manston. Who in their right mind will invest ? You only have to look at other regional airports to see it is doomed to fail yet again.

    • Why the negativity?

    • Other regional,air ports are growing ,check your facts first and please change the record

      • Like Southend and Cardiff eh!!
        check your facts first and please change the record

    • Indeed. Even if RSP build an airport, I don’t see how it can ever be successful.
      It’s already failed at least once. Regional airports are closing up and down the country.
      And not one out of more than a dozen international expert reports thinks that Manston can work as an airport.
      Who needs a JR, when economic geography does the job?

      • Tell me Andrew, as you’re such a self-proclaimed expert… Who shot JR?

        • I’m not the expert (in this case)

          However, York Aviation, Falcon Aviation, Ove Arup, Altitude Aviation and a host of others are.
          And, broadly, they all say the same thing.
          Manston is in the wrong place.
          Some reports have a slightly more positive conclusion: that if £millions were to be spent on transport infrastructure; if there were some sort of internationally important industry adjacent to the airport, then Manston just might break even.
          But most of the reports (York Aviation especially) make no bones about it. A Cargo hub at Manston would fail, just as tha passenger service did previously.

          That’s what the experts say.

          And if an air cargo hub is so necessary, and a sure fire winner, why will it take RSP 15 years to develop it?

          Some unnecessary and unpleasant comments have been made about “DFLs”.
          Well,,the (known) directors of RSP are from London, the USA and Switzerland. An Irish director resigned.
          Not much local opportunity there, then?

          • “They” also said Brexit would lose the vote and Trump would never be president. I think the airport stands as much chance as they did. Just stay positive!

          • Just how will the airport “stand as much chance”? It’s down to an economic model and a business plan, not chance.
            Who will fly their cargo, in substantial amounts, into and out of Manston when there are already plenty of better facilities elsewhere?

          • Would YOU have predicted a Brexit win and a Trump victory?

            Me neither.

22. Respect your opinion, just respect my opinion.
    Regarding the issue of Labour and Conservative for that matter. Two cheeks of the same backside.

23. When will the anti’s change the record,it’s getting boring, if it does go ahead they can blame Putin ,brexit the weather the media ,the grass is to long ,Ukraine EU ,Usa ,alien invasion,the list will go on ,just admit ,it may go ahead it might not

24. Why would anyone in their right mind want to rely on air transport while we have a seaport on our doorstep and while we are only 30 miles from mainland Europe? Flying is so last century and it’s about time people put this antisocial means of transport behind them. I wish Mr Freudmann every failure.

    • Are you telling me that you travelled by boat to here?

      https://www.flickr.com/photos/156167618@N03/

      Or is it one rule for you, and another rule for the rest?

      • Doxxing someone, Peter? Bit of a poor taste, dont you think?

        • Preferable to outright lying, Bazza.

          • Shows your caliber, and erm, maybe check the dictionary, Pester.

          • Um, sure, unless doxxing means something different to “Internet-based activity of researching and then publishing an individual’s personally identifiable details”. And by the way, your parliamentary heroes are not shy about outright lying.

          • Whatever, Ian.

    • Have you any idea of the pollution that large ‘boats ‘ put out?
      They burn the crappiest of fuel imaginable.
      No valid comparison there at all.

25. Just let it set up and inevitably fail. No point arguing against it. Let it prove it won’t be viable at least.

26. My reply to Nigel Munson is very simple and very clear. Never mind about who, on the town council, wanted to stump up thousands of pounds for yet another judicial revue, just don’t vote at all because every time an election comes round we get the same old unqualified nobodies, the same gormless know-alls who are personally unknown to most electors. I would not vote for someone I know nothing about nor would I take the word of a stranger. Even worse, if they are DFLs.

27. The DFL comments on here are absurd at best, and bordering on hate speech at worse. You don’t have to be born somewhere in order to have a view, and influence, locally. To suggest otherwise is just embarrassing to put it politely, and ignorant to put it candidly.

    Our struck off solicitor Tony and his band of mystery overseas investors could go ahead any time he chooses to with his airport, JR or no JR. But he doesn’t. Funny that.

    Perhaps he’s measuring the end of the runway from the new fencing for the new housing which is 50m from the perimeter.

    • Hate speech? Have you been taking advice from Meghan Markle and her poodle prince?

    • Those people who move into the new housing must’ve known there was at least an outside chance of the airport returning? Yous take your chances…

28. Tbh it has always been a central government decision, nothing to do with dawes & £ backers

    During the dawes and co interventions, aviation has significantly changed. The world has moved on.

    So disappointed with the dawes & co funders. That cash they have burnt could have been better distributed to other local causes.

    The dawes delay may be considered an own goal

    • How can a delay to noise pollution be an own goal? Surely every delay means that our eardrums remain intact for longer and our quality of life gets a welcome extension

      • What about the people who live by the airport that you flew to China in 2017 from? Or are you one of those “not in my backyard” people?

    • People can donate to whatever causes they want to. What a strange comment.

29. Will be great to see it up & running again bringing jobs and prosperity to the area – Those DFL’s that moved here never experiencing the airport and are against it just move on or move back.

    • What jobs? From 1998 onward that promise was made in the hype for it & the various operators never delivered-as confirmed by the KCC report into what an epic failure & waste of taxpayer money their unwavering & irrational support& investment had been for 15 years.

      Good to see that the people of Thanet are still falling for the same old bs.

30. What jobs? Unemployment has declined since it last went bust.

    The government inspector confirmed it will kill more jobs than it creates.

    • Thanet has always been a black spot for unemployment. Ever since I was a lad.
      Airport or no airport. There is no industry, you see. Just bloody boarding houses.

31. no one has been able to point out where the business is coming from to fill – I think–20 or so aircraft stands……why would the freight big boys change from their well developed sites next to existing airports, with road network and labour supply to here…. I just don’t get it–and to make it work down here they will need to be highly automated, so…limited number of jobs surely

    • The document this “company” released said it would create 50,000 jobs.

      If any further evidence was needed that this is indeed doomed to fail is a ridiculous claim like that.

32. Fantastic news , common sense prevaled at last , Now Riveroak can get cracking with the airport , I wish them all the best with their plans .

    • RSP has owned the site for over 3 years and done absolutely nothing.
      They could have finalised the CAA licence. They could have got Planning Permission from the Local Authority.
      But they haven’t.
      I wonder why?

33. I think a lot of those celebrating here forget RSP and good ol’ Tone the struck off solicitor still have a lot of hoops to jump through. Putting aside the big problem of getting investors there is the problem of no CAA aerodrome licence or flight paths. There is also the problems of relocating the HRDF to a location agreed by the MOD. That alone will cause problems as RSP have pissed off the MOD. The MOD want the new one up and running for two years before they will agree to decommissioning the old one. In the meanwhile RSP cannot even put a spade in the ground.

    • To be strictly correct, the DCO requirement is that RSP come up with a plan, acceptable to the MOD. Given the mistrust between them, that’ll have to be a Very Good Plan.

34. The pro airport crew seem to think the ONLY possible reason they could be against the airport is not wanting planes overhead. This sums up the intelligence of the pro airport crew.

    I miss the planes. I grew up with it being an airport. I love aviation. It so sad driving through and seeing an abandoned airport. I love seeing aircraft overhead and since a young child have attended so many air shows all over I have lost count and will never tire of seeing and looking for aircraft when you hear it over head.

    All that being said. Manston is a failed airport. Over and over. It never created many jobs and never will.

    Remove the romance and the cold hard facts are it won’t create local jobs for Thanet.

    It won’t bring industry here it won’t bring investment. All of this has been promised and tried before and failed. The same tired old fools will champion it and spew hatred at anyone that disagrees but facts are facts.

    It’s going to go forward and within 3 years we will be talking about another take over and another challenge as this rebirth fails. People will still be telling people to move and saying “this time is different” it won’t be different.

    • It will happen. Just believe, and stay strong!

35. Finally! GPs are really looking forward to work with all the children developing asthma, plus their parents’ heart and lung diseases. Prescriptions of sleeping tablets will go through the roof, as seen everywhere else. And finally, the 31 people who manage to get a job loading and unloading pallets will feel much better, knowing their minimum wage, zero-hours jobs surrounded by noise and pollution will make them feel better. Victory for common sense. Believe in Manston.

    • GPs? Looking forward to work?

      If only!

      • What a strange comment, coming from a writer with so much free time… Anyway, deflect, as usual, and dont pay attention to the issue at hand.

        • Nobody.

36. Sad news for Thanet. As now we have to wait for the inevitable collapse. Tony Freudmann has a proven track record of over promising and not delivering. Don’t believe me, just Google the following:
    Lahr Airport
    Travel Club of Upminster
    Liverpool’s ‘Scousescraper’and Garden Festival site.
    It would be great if our journalists actually did some investigative journalism and for the airport supporters to actually open their eyes and not be brainwashed.
    The whole time this drags on more homes get put on farmland. Had we had decent MPs we could have looked at something positive for the site.
    I do hope the airport supporters don’t whinge when their council tax has to rise or services are cut as KCC and /or TDC will inevitably need to bank roll it before it collapses.
    Be careful what you wish for!

    • I’d rather my taxes would help support a business than an art gallery or amusement park.

      • An art gallery is a business. You know that, dont you?

        • What, with free entry? No, it’s a charity.

      • It is just as much a folly as both of those. Let us hope KCC keep their word & when RiverOak eventually come with their begging bowl after a couple of years of huge losses are reminded they promised to fund it entirely.

        I still would like to know where Stonehill & Riveroak were all that time when nobody wanted it & Gloag ended up buying it for a quid. Then not long after these two are paying crazy money for it.

37. Manston was an RAF station until the late 1990s. As such, throughout the Cold War, it was a success. Calling it a failed airport is premature and it depends on many factors for its future success. Saying it is going to fail in three years is hopelessly negative. Instead, the global economic climate could change and bring with it a new regeneration in this part of the world. Trade deals, for example, with Russia and China would be a great boost and make a transport hub very important and essential. The worst thing government has done is to side with Ukraine, described as a messed-up country run by messed-up people. Is it worth it?

    • It is highly probable as since 1998 all operators there have incurred combined losses of over 100 million & departed. Why do you think this lot will be any different? Especially when both KCC & independents have carried out reports saying there is no demand for an airport there & it is totally unsustainable?

      What was it about doing the same thing over & over & expecting a different outcome? Face reality-Manston is in the ass end of nowhere, they still haven’t sorted out the travel links.

      Thanet needs to stop pretending it is a cultural art centre, a digital world beater or global flight power.

      Unless you are going to invest heavily & change the infrastructure then these ‘digital hubs’ are training people for jobs that aren’t in Thanet-no benefit to the area, creating ‘art hubs’ in an industry that is totally reliant on KCC/TDC/Arts Council/Lottery handouts for non-existent careers-no benefit to the area & an airport nobody without a car can get to easily, in a place far away from where people really fly from & making the same false promises of huge local jobs & prosperity all the others made & didn’t deliver on. Let’s not forget the China Gateway stupidity either. Let’s be realistic about what Thanet is & make some achievable goals that can be delivered & improve the lot for local people.

38. The key word us “Hub”.
    An ex RAF airfield in the bottom right hand corner of England, surrounded by sea on three sides, isn’t a hub.
    EMA, in the middle of England, surrounded on 4 sides by road and rail networks and transport logistics, is.
    And that’s just one of Manston’s problems.

39. As there has not been any press release from any youth organisation about the success of Maston, I assume they are not interested in the jobs offered by the cargo industry. And as I dont want the Maston project to fail, I have put up a form so everybody keen to have a job can put their name down. Just say what skills you have and the job you could do, and I’ll pass it on to the Maston people. It does not matter if you are already working, put your name down and chip in some hours, we dont want the airport to fail again and we all know Tonnie Freitmann needs all their help they can get.

    • I’m guessing you don’t actually live here. No local would mis-spell “Manston” 3 times in one paragraph. Except a very stupid one.

      • Why the personal attack and insult? Clearly, you are not one of the locals who say good morning. You must be a failed writer from London. Perhaps you will want to work at Maston. Put your name down in the list, it may be the most amount of words you write in a week.

        • Where is that?

          • Where is what? For a writer, your writing does not make much sense. Mind you, that may explain the huge commercial success you enjoy. Like Tony’s. Oh well. Still, dont hesitate to put your name down for the training offered by RSP, everybody within 60 minutes of the cargo is welcome and will be considered a ‘local’.

          • Whatever, Chris.

40. Well it seems the lunatics are really running the asylum.No ifs, buts, or excuses with Manston from now on.The airporteenies will now have to put or shut up, But of course they won’t.When it fails and it will, they will blame everyone else, you know remainers, pro-vaxers, the woke, etc etc.
    I thing Gerry O’Donnell should be made CEO, that will really put the tin hat on the madcap scheme.
    The best thing to do now is to sit, wait, and watch

41. What are you desperate for Peter? Holiday via a packing crate? Or a delivery of some shortage freeze dried fish and some race horses. The latter being what RSP told the public hearing the UK was in desperate need of a cargo hub for.

    • Desperate? No.

      Just not “doom and gloom” like many on here.

      And I like seeing the planes when I’m out strolling near Minster and Cliffsend. They excite me!

      • Checksfield : You’re wrong assuming it’s me . .It’s nothing to do with me , So I think that you owe me an apology .
        It’s obviously someone winding you up .

        • There is only one Peter Checksfield in Thanet (though there is a completely unrelated one in Dymchurch).

          However, I’m sure there are plenty named Chris. I can name 3 myself, without even thinking of a bloke I met very briefly in Birchington just the once.

          Rein in the ego, Chris #4.

    • Sally Dixon told me at one of the consultations that the must-have cargo was palettes of daffs from Holland.

      • That’s nice, though I’d prefer it if they were flown from the Isles of Scilly.

42. Kind of think many dawes backers will become rather tiresome with their current approach and not being able to land their idea(pun!). Others could request a new body to take over the operation of denying the former airfield to redevelop into the first ultra efficient green! modern airport to be constructed in Uk with training,permanent job opportunities + other off shot businesses. (look out for James burger van) spotters will love it.
    Thinking of doing burgers with low noise, medium noise or go large noise.Plus fried onions heated form the blast of a trent 800 Yes recycling heat.

    Blame nimbys

    • Who should the people developing asthma and heart disease from the aviation pollution blame…? Any concern about the health of the children…? Any thoughts for those employed in the tourist industry who will lose their jobs? Are they nimbus as well? Should they also get into the burger van trade?

43. Putting a sense of business into the equation, last 15 years it would have been a bad business decision.
    Next 13 years after airport construction ( construction around 3 years) then the business model will be so different.
    Dnata ! etc

44. Now it’s time for freadmann to show us his 500million and who’s investing.

    Lol

    • Commercial in confidence “Mr X”.

      • The DCO application docs submitted by RSP made it clear (eventually) that there were no backers or investors. RSP’s plan was, and presumably still is, to attract inward investment from investors and banks (commercial, in confidence or not) once a DCO has been granted.

45. Oh yes those camera shy mystery investors. Comedy gold.

    All those smart millionaires investing in a dead duck airfield while other airports close and airlines pull out of other locations.

    Smart.

46. James. Ultra efficient modern and green. Have you read the RSP greenwashing? They think this is achieved by staff car sharing on their way to work. It won’t mean any changes to the knackered old cargo boilers spitting fuel over Ramsgate.

    The green credentials are as accurate as the jobs lies. Sorry. Credentials.

    Silly me.

47. I can’t see many companies importing goods into an airport far from their customer base to be loaded on the back of a lorry to travel fifty plus miles.

    • Electric barges, perhaps?

48. Unicorns?

49. Folks, I am off to cook my dinner now and then hopefully pack in for the evening so commenting needs to be turned off.