Have your say in Manston's future

This Is YOUR BIG CHANCE To Say What You Think Should Happen To The Ex-Airport Site At Manston.

This is what you'll see on the left of the screen when you're being heroic...

Thanet District Council are consulting on their "preferred options" in the Draft Local Plan. This consultation runs from 9th January to 6th March 2015. To be honest, it's rather tedious, and leaves you thinking "have they deliberately tried to make this awkward?".

BUT (and it's a big "but") this is your only chance to influence the Plan that will shape the next 15 years. Please note - you don't have to be a  Thanet resident to comment on the Plan. So grab yourself a gallon of tea or a pint of gin, and knuckle down for a brief spell of "dull but useful"...

Click HERE to go to the bit of the TDC website that tells you what you need to know. You'll need to register before you can make comments (just like the Canterbury Local Plan, if you did that). There's a helpful step-by-step guide, and they do point out that you don't have to do it all in one go - your comments are saved as you go, and you can come back to it as often as you like.

I've been through the 263 page document (!), identified the bits that refer directly to the ex-airport at Manston, and listed them below. All of these refer to the menu-type thing that you'll see at the left of your screen on the TDC consultation site (shown in the picture on the left here). This should make it easier for you to home in on the relevant bits.

(If you're allergic to their online consultation site, you can send your comments directly to local.plans@thanet.gov.uk)

---

If you only do one of these, do the first.

• Strategic Proposals | Economic Strategy | Manston Airport [SP05]
• Thanet Preferred Option Draft Local Plan | Strategic Priorities and Objectives | Strategic Priority 1 [SP01]
• Strategic Proposals | Economic Strategy | Employment Growth | 1.7 [SP02]
• Strategic Proposals | Economic Strategy | Manston Business Park | (3) [SP04]
• Strategic Proposals | Town Centre Strategy | Ramsgate | 2.54 [SP09]
• Strategic Proposals | Housing Strategy | Strategic Housing Allocations | Manston Green | (4), (5) [SP13]
• Strategic Proposals | Transport Strategy | Safe and Sustainable Travel | 6.3,  6.4 [SP34]
• Strategic Proposals | Transport Strategy | Connectivity | 6.12 [SP37]
• Development Management Policies | Safe and Healthy Environment | Groundwater Protection | 16.16 [SE04]
• Development Management Policies | Safe and Healthy Environment | Aircraft Noise and Noise Sensitive Development [SE08]

---

I think the single most important fact to try to get across is that the airport has closed, it has been shut for months, and the owners have no intention of re-opening it as an airport. Everything that assumes an operational airport is, in my opinion, a deliberate mistake which needs correcting.

TDC have gone "rabbit in headlights" in response to a gobby minority demanding that they risk bankruptcy by CPO-ing the site on behalf of an American firm who can't afford to pay its full market value themselves. So they've come up with a peculiar fence-sitting strategy that means they keep assuming it is (and will be) an operational airport, AND are setting up an Area Action Plan which assumes it isn't.

Personally, I think they'll get a kicking from the Planning Inspector for asking people to consult on a Plan that talks about the operational needs and growth potential of an airport that's shut, but that's their lookout.

The plane fans who want to see a 24 hour cargo hub and the UK's biggest aviation knackers yard will be writing in. Don't let theirs be the only voice.