TDC's Airport Working Party ditched

Even their harshest critics would accept that they were better than nothing, but now the AWP has been disbanded and air-brushed from history.

Why now?

I would have thought that this would be a particularly useful time to have a single, dedicated point of contact between the airport and the Council. Consider:

• the, ahem, burgeoning passenger traffic through the airport,
• British Airways pilots circling over Thanet as they get to grips with the some of the largest passenger aircraft in the world,
• Manston branching out into hosting large open-air events like the recent air show,
• the airport is STILL for sale - even if they're not involved in (or informed of) negotiations, surely TDC would want to be ready to welcome the new owners, because of...
• the need to renegotiate the S106 agreement.

How could this have happened?

Well, fingers are being pointed at Cllr John Worrow and Cllr Mike Harrison. Both went to the Overview & Scrutiny committee meeting on 28th May, when the various working parties for the coming year were set up. As Charles Hungwe (the officer in charge of the committee) wrote to me:

At the meeting of the Overview & Scrutiny Panel on 28 May 2013, Members set up 5 task & finish groups/working parties for 2013/14. Unfortunately the Airport Working Party was not one of the five. The five that were set up are as follows:

Community Safety Partnership Working Party; Corporate Improvement Working Party; Electoral Registration Process Review Task & Finish Group; Pleasurama Site Development Review Task & Finish Group; TDC Artefacts Management Review Task & Finish Group.

The AWP wasn't overlooked, far from it. It was considered and rejected, as it says in the minutes:

Some Members of the Panel said that they were still receiving complaints from residents in their wards about noise levels for aircraft landing outside permitted times. They said that the working party should be re-constituted to continue monitoring the activities at the Manston International Airport. Members expressed the view that the Airport Working Party could review the role of the airport in the proposed Thanet Economic Growth and Regeneration Strategy. Other Members however said that the Kent International Airport Consultative Committee (KIACC) had the formal role of monitoring compliance with policies on flight times.

Councillor Gibson proposed, Councillor Huxley seconded that the Airport Working Party be re-constituted.

When put to vote the motion was LOST.

Hang on a minute

The ruling Labour group has a majority (on paper, at least) on the committee, so how could they lose a vote proposed and seconded by Labour councillors?

Cllr John Worrow (multi-Independent) had stamped out of the meeting, disgusted at the company he was expected to keep, so he wasn't there to vote. And Cllr Mike Harrison (Lab) - who has been on the AWP for years, possibly from its inception - apparently did NOT vote to support the reconstitution of the AWP.

This has infuriated the Labour bigwigs, who are now desperately casting around for some means of re-running the vote and resurrecting the AWP. Given that they made manifesto pledges and ran on a platform of making the airport "resident-friendly", or at least "resident-considerate", many people would say this is the least they can do.

So where does all this leave us? As Charles Hungwe wrote to me, copying Madeline Homer:

You may wish to contact your Ward Councillor and/or Madeline Homer, Director of Community Services, if there are any issues of concern relating to the airport activities that you feel are urgent and require the attention of Council.

So I did. I replied to Charles and Madeline: 

View fullsize

but have received no reply.

Over to you

Dear Reader, perhaps you might be luckier. Drop Madeline a line - see if you can find out how TDC is proposing to manage its increasingly complex relationship with the airport during this time of uncertainty and transition.

You may also want to write to Cllr Jo Gideon to ask how she thinks TDC will manage without the committee she so ably chaired.

AWP postponement explained

Some TDC Members aren't happy with some TDC Officers. Well, an Officer.

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Subject: CANCELLATION OF AIRPORT WORKING PARTY MEETING

Dear Members of the Airport Working Party,

I am cancelling the Airport Working Party meeting which is scheduled for tomorrow [19th Feb] for the following reasons:

1.    The paperwork was circulated too late for any useful discussion with officers as to its contents (or lack thereof).

2.    My recollection from the original meeting was that the report should focus on what we as a council can do to support economic growth using the airport - and this question has not been addressed in the report.

I am sorry that Members (and indeed others who may have planned to attend from the press and public) may have been inconvenienced. I myself only had sight of the report this Saturday morning (16th February).

As well as asking Democratic Services to circulate AWP members and any others who usually attend, I will ask for Members to be phoned to ensure you receive the notification in time, however as Charles Hungwe is on leave this week, I am also writing to you directly. Could you please advise any substitute member you may have selected about the cancellation, and anyone from the public you are aware of who planned to attend.

I wish it to go on record that I am truly shocked that a report which was requested in October for a January meeting – and which was then delayed several weeks as it was not complete, has not been available until two (working) days before the meeting. This shows a complete lack of respect for Scrutiny and for the members of the working party. That the report only amounted to four pages really added insult to injury!

The report, “The role of Manston International Airport in a new regeneration strategy and overall economic strategy for Thanet” should be a key strategic document. Therefore I can only surmise that either there is no work being done on this vital topic (despite the request from Scrutiny), or we are not being allowed access to the council’s emerging regeneration and economic development policies, which is equally disturbing.

Either way, it makes a mockery of Scrutiny.

Since the main Scrutiny Panel agreed just last week to recommend that the remit and number of Scrutiny committees be widened, we need to seriously reflect on the purpose of the recommendation and its likely effectiveness if not supported by the administration.

Jo Gideon, Chairman, Airport Working Party

Airport Working Party meeting Tuesday 19th Feb

NEWSFLASH: This meeting has now been postponed. No new date has yet been set.

Oh joy of joys - another opportunity to see Thanet's finest in action (inaction?). The greybeards and hotheads will be getting together to apply their minds to the knotty problem of whether and how Manston might contribute to Thanet's glowing future.

Venue: Austen Room, Council Offices, Cecil Street, Margate, Kent. Click HERE for the Agenda etc.

The main topic of conversation promises to be a report from Rob Hetherington, TDC's Economic & Regeneration Manager (see below for an annotated version).

The Role of Manston International Airport in a New Regeneration Strategy by NoNightFlights

Airport Working Party: unprepared

The AWP may be prepared to shoot itself in the foot, but it's not preparing for much else.

In August this year - 5 months after the airport was put up for sale - the Airport Working Party had one of their games of musical chairs, when the membership and chairmanship changes. When the music stopped, Cllr Jo Gideon had become chair of the Group, the rest of the merry crew being Cllrs Alexandrou, Bruce, Gibson, Grove, Harrison, Marson and Worrow.

At that meeting in August, the AWP laid out its action plan and timetable for the foreseeable, starting with a review of the S106 and a good hard look at the results of a number of research trips to airports around Britain over the last few years.

Nothing like being prepared

The only members of the original cast to turn up for yesterday's meeting were Cllrs Alexandrou, Gideon and Marson, with Cllrs Campbell, King and Wise there as understudies, substituting for some of the absentees. It was one of those meetings where I found myself shaking my head in disbelief and growing horror, hoping that I might wake up.

The first stumbling block identified by Cllr Gideon was that none of them had the legal expertise necessary to make specific recommendations for a new S106. Fair enough. Cllr Gideon went on to say that they could instead look at why there had been so many concerns over the adequacy of the document. Good idea - identifying the flaws and short-comings of the current agreement would help when producing the next version.

However, Cllr Marson was concerned that they might just end up with a wish list of things they might like to talk about at some point in the future. Er, yes, that's the point - that "wish list" would be TDC's negotiating position, and that "point in the future" would be the negotiations.

Cllr Campbell pointed out that if the Council could come to a position on what it would want from a S106 agreement, then it would be ready to enter into negotiations with a new owner, should the opportunity arise. Thus the Council would be ready for negotiations if there is a quick sale, and it would be remiss of the Council not to have a starting position for negotiations. (EXACTLY!) Cllr Alexandrou agreed, saying that without an opening negotiating position, there is the risk that TDC will be seen as having an "anything goes" attitude, so there is a clear need for some ground rules.

The next stumbling block to be discovered was that the airport is up for sale. Er, we all knew that in August when the AWP's terms of reference were defined and the agenda for this meeting was set. Some of the AWP viewed the fact that airport is up for sale as a reason for not reviewing the S106 at all, but Cllr Alexandrou pointed out that there is currently someone to negotiate with - the current owners.

Nonetheless, Cllr Gideon concluded that the consensus was that this is the wrong time to review the S106 agreement, and that it should be revisited as and when the airport sale goes through, or a planning application is received. It would be marvellous if the AWP adopted the motto used by hundreds of thousands of scouts and guides across Britain - "Be Prepared".

It wouldn't be very difficult or time-consuming or expensive to produce an outline of TDC's ideal S106, with "must have" and "nice to have" elements listed in priority order.

• Right at the top of the list would have to be: the S106 must be attached to a planning permission - this would give TDC the leverage it is so woefully lacking at the moment.
• The new S106 must include an element of compulsion - it is absurd that the airport operator can choose whether or not to discuss the terms of its permission to operate on TDC's patch.
• The new S106 must be completely unambiguous - the current version has no clear definition of what counts as a scheduled night flight.

Do feel free to add your own ideas for what should be included in the new S106 in the comments section below.

Wasted Journeys

Our attention was then turned to the reports produced by earlier AWP outings to airports around the country. The intrepid councillors had been to Prestwick (Glasgow), Southend, Norwich, Bristol, Bournemouth and Luton. Cllr Gideon dismissed the papers as "reading a bit like someone's diary - not an incisive or meaty comparison document the AWP could do something with". Oh dear. Perhaps it was just as well that none of the councillors who spent all those days and nights away from their constituencies were present to see their work being rubbished.

Self-destruct

And things went from bad to worse. Having decided that there was no way they could force Infratil into a root-and-branch review of the S106, the AWP thought it might be a good idea to go to Infratil with the suggestion of making some "minimal amendments - bringing the agreement up to date, data compliance and so on".

This would be a disaster. The S106 stipulates re-negotiation every 3 years (although we all know this has not happened so far). Any negotiation with Infratil to make minor tweaks to the S106 would effectively reset the 3 year clock.

This would mean that the new owner of the airport (and Infratil for as long as they continue to own the airport) would then be completely within their rights to refuse to enter into any further S106 negotiations with TDC for the next 3 years.

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Where the S106 renegotiation is concerned, the only thing worse than doing nothing is not doing enough.

Sparks fly over AWP fiasco

The unutterable shambles of the AWP meeting has given cause for complaint. A fully-fledged formal foot-stamping has landed with a thump at TDC Towers and should give a few people there pause for thought - a few snippets are reproduced below for your enlightenment.

Firstly, there is the problem of Mr Buchanan being given the opportunity to offically heckle the Council's draft report.

If simply by applying to address the working party results in one party with vested interests being able to speak in chambers, then this should be widely known. In this specific instance, I wish to know why officers did not think to invite other interested parties.

Then Cllr Gideon, the AWP Chair, and Cllrs Marson and Wiltshire come in for some stick over apparently partisan harrying of a TDC officer.

NB a couple of important snippets went missing during my cutting and pasting - shown in [square brackets] - my apologies to the three councillors, and particularly Cllr Marson for incorrectly ascribing Cllr Gideon's actions to her.

[Cllr Gideon, Cllr Wiltshire and] Cllr Marson repeatedly called into question the validity of the exercise. [However, Cllr Gideon’s line of questioning to Hannah Thorpe, the officer in charge of the consultation, should be called into question.] She posed a series of questions, leading questions, that included phrases such as "do you think it was fair", "was it more difficult for you to interpret", "was it not as good as" - going on at length to suggest that the process was somehow lacking. Hannah Thorpe was concise and clear in her response and said that the process was as robust and democratic as any, that this type of open consultation was one used by many councils and, indeed, was a type frequently used by TDC.

This should have been the end of that but Cllrs Gideon, Wiltshire and Marson repeatedly came back to this line of questioning. Hannah Thorpe finally advised that this consultation had resulted in the largest response in numbers of any council consultation and that continued undermining and questioning of this process was potentially "dangerous" as it could call into question all the many previous (and presumably future) consultations undertaken by TDC.

I consider the Chair's behaviour went way beyond that required/expected of a Chair. Clarification and further information was sought and obtained from Hannah Thorpe and that should have been sufficient. My view is that she brought her own opinion of the consultation into the discussion thus acting beyond her role as Chair.

Next up - Cllr Gideon's selective acceptance of numbers. Infratil's wishful forecasts are fine, but the World Health Organisation is regarded as questionable.

Cllr Green had asked that an amendment/addition of his be discussed and had supplied a paper. His paper contained detailed statistical evidence from the World Health Organisation, from the House of Commons and from Visit Kent as his points pertained to health, the impact of night flights on the local tourist economy and to serious concerns about quota count systems. The group were asked if they wished this paper to be added to the draft response. This was agreed.

At this point, Cllr Gideon said she was not sure where all these figures had come from, that they might be questionable, that they didn't need to be included and would Cllr Green be happy if the amended draft included the "spirit" of his comments. I consider this to be an outrageous intervention given that the presentation from Manston was unchallenged, that figures supplied by Manston seem, somehow, to be true and reliable yet figures researched by Cllr Green and all properly referenced to independent and nationally and internationally recognised bodies should be called into question and required to be removed from a subsequent document that will be presented to the scrutiny committee.

During the meeting, and subsequently in the press, Mr Buchanan has tried to merge the results of his own consultation (of unknown and unknowable impartiality) with the results of TDC's consultation. Any statistician worth their salt would puke with rage at the very suggestion.

Mr Buchanan does not seem to understand that you cannot simply add the two "surveys" together. Who knows whether his claimed 962 people in favour of night flights are the same people as wrote to TDC expressing their night flight support? The potential for double-counting here is enormous. In the interests of balance, the results from No Night Flights (and we understand and accept that there may be double-counting here too) must also be put in front of members.

All in all, it paints a very unflattering picture.

The way in which TDC conducts itself goes to the very heart of our democracy. If we, as residents/electors, can not have faith in the way the council and its officers conduct matters then we can have little or no faith in the democratic process. Most of council business is conducted out of the public gaze and, having attended this meeting, I despair as I contemplate how much must go unremarked upon and how little accountability there seems to be.

Thanet Airport Working Party 4th April

Like pushing your own face into a bacon slicer. Slowly. It was shambolic to a degree I would once have found shocking.

Charles Buchanan had been invited to speak by Cllr Gideon (chair), at Madeline Homer's suggestion, to "clarify" a number of points relating to the AWP's draft response. This led to some confusion as to whether the current draft report would need to be returned to Parsons Brinckerhoff for rewriting in the light of whatever Mr Buchanan might be about to say. Eventually they decided to play it by ear, and if only minor adjustments were required, they could go straight to the next stage of the process (Overview & Scrutiny) without the AWP needing to meet again.

[An aside: WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON? TDC have had their consultation, and received a report from the independent consultants. Why is Buchanan even allowed to speak at the AWP, let alone be allowed to modify the Council's document? We've all seen TDC's draft report, and there's plenty that NoNightFlights would like to comment on, as (I guess) would the CPRE Protect Kent, and many others. If TDC want to avoid legal crucifixion for bias and failure of process, they are going to have to cut Mr Buchanan out of the loop, or include everyone.]

At the beginning of the meeting, Mr Buchanan's scope for comment was whittled down from the whole report to sections 4.7 to 4.7.3 - largely as a result of Cllr Campbell's insistence. Mr Buchanan was accompanied a consultant from Bickerdike Allen Partners (who said nothing), and another from York Aviation who ended up doing most of the talking.

Some while into the discussions, Cllr Campbell realised that the AWP all had a new and previously unseen document, and complained that they hadn't been given time to assimilate it. It eventually transpired that this was not a TDC document, but had come from Buchanan. He had said that he had been hoping to speak more widely than 4.7-4.7.3, and presumably had wanted to work his way through the document, point by point.

Looking at the signing-in book on the front desk, Mr Buchanan was the first in, and had presumably just left a copy of the document at each seat. Sneaky bastard. Homer simply told everyone to "pretend they hadn't seen it" and not to include any reference to it in their discussions, although she did tell Cllr Marson that she could take her copy home (!).

People wiser than I in the ways of protocol and the conduct of meetings would know better, but I would have thought a more proper course of action would have been for Cllr Gideon to collect and destroy the documents, rebuke Mr Buchanan, and minute accordingly. Or just punch someone.

In between trying to undermine the credibility of Parsons Brinckerhoff and their report, the guy from York Aviation did reveal the identity of the six airports that appeared in Section 3.10 of the York Aviation report as the basis for employment forecasts. They are Bournemouth, Bristol, Blackpool, Leeds/Bradford, Edinburgh and East Midlands - the last of these being the "outlier" on the graph due to the high volumes of freight it handles. He also let slip that Manston expected a 50:50 mix of freight and passenger traffic - the previous story has been 90% passenger.

Charles Buchanan stated that the proposal does not claim that 1,4552 jobs and £30.4m GVA (Gross Value Added) would be created by night flights, rather that the absence of night flights would jeopardise the potential benefits of the airport by these amounts.

In my eyes, Charles Buchanan exemplified the use of data to obscure and distort issues. In striking contrast was Council officer Hannah Thorpe - easily the star of the evening - who stuck resolutely to the principle of using data to clarify, and sticking strictly within the limits of validity rather than trying to extrapolate in the hope of supporting anyone’s preconceptions.

So when Cllr Gideon asked whether free-form (as opposed to questionnaire-style) responses were harder to analyse meaningfully - Ms Thorpe: No, we do it all the time - we're doing it for the Asset Management consultation.

Cllr Gideon: was the format of the survey a good way of getting a response? - Ms Thorpe: it was widely promoted through mail shots, press articles and adverts, and is "equally as valid" as any other form of consultation conducted by TDC.

Cllr Gideon: what percentage of Thanet's population responded? - Ms Thorpe: that's not a valid or correct way to assess the response.

Cllr Gideon: doesn't the low percentage response rate invalidate the result? - Ms Thorpe: don't go there, this is the highest response rate we've had for any consultation - if you disregard this result, you'll have to disregard every consultation result we've ever had.

Cllr Green successfully argued for the inclusion in the report of three significant additional considerations: a summary of the health impacts of broken and disrupted sleep from the World Health Organisation; a critical assessment of the short-comings of the QC noise rating system, from the House of Commons library; and an overview of the scale and economic importance of Thanet's tourism industry.

Cllr Campbell successfully argued that the effects of noise disruption on residents' rights under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights needed to be included in the report.

Cllr Hart, when explaining his decision to go for an in-house consultation rather than spending £50k on MORI made an interesting point. Many people had been puzzling over how TDC proposed to implement the proposed weighting of responses from those under the flight path as against those living out of earshot - what multiplier, or what algorithm would be used?

Cllr Hart's solution was disarmingly simple: it would be down to councillors to use their own judgement. Just as councillors make a judgement call when assessing the planning applications - closer proximity means a greater impact - they should use their own judgement to assess how much more weight should be attached to responses that come from those under the flight path.

Noise monitoring at Manston Airport

Noise? What Noise?

More needs to be done to monitor noise created by airplanes at Manston airport, Thanet council officers have admitted after a grilling by councillors.

During the meeting of the Airport Working Party last Wednesday, members quizzed council officials on what had been done to make sure Manston airport operator Infratil sticks to the conditions of its planning agreement, a Section 106, with the council. Labour councillor David Green said he did not think the monitoring was sufficiently independent or transparent, adding:

"I am starting from the position that I want a successful airport. But it seems the only way of achieving that is if the airport is monitored by this council, and that monitoring is seen to be independent and transparent to the public."

Environmental protection manager, Penny Button, said the only data the council had to assess noise from airplanes was being provided by Infratil itself.

Mr Green, who later described the admission as "refreshingly honest and shocking", said:

"Noise monitoring is only as good as the noise monitoring stations, none of which we have control over."

Officers said the council had collected £4,000 in fines over the last two years for unscheduled night flights found to be in breach of noise limitations.

Manston airport chief executive Charles Buchanan said the number of night flights taking place over Thanet varied from two to 10 a month but said that flights exceeding noise limits were rare.

"We monitor noise as most airports do. It is our responsibility to fund and maintain the noise monitors, which we do, and provide information to the council, which is totally normal. I believe we are meeting our obligation with the council and the 106 agreement that we have in place."

Questions were also raised about waste water from the airport flowing into Pegwell Bay, a nature reserve, and whether monitoring of it was properly enforced by the council.

Community service manager Madeline Homer said that due to a recent restructuring of the council she was not able to answer all the members' questions then, but would report back to the working party at the next meeting, a date for which has yet to be announced.

thisiskent 7th Oct 2011

Airport Working Party neutered?

Oh dear. What are the members of the AWP going to do to fill the hours? Their Terms of Reference have been "amended", removing the interesting and useful bits. I guess they'll just have to make the most of their invaluable research trips around the country to find out what happens at other regional airports. Rather than just phoning them.

• Deleted: Consideration of the airport's proposed night flying policy including establishment of parameters for community consultation and assessment of technical criteria against which the policy can be judged.
• Deleted: Work towards the preparation of a supplementary planning document relating to the development of the airport to provide a policy basis for the Council to steer airport growth in a manner that is environmentally acceptable.
• Deleted: Research and make recommendations on future public engagement.
• Deleted: Review the results of public engagement and report to the Panel for decision.

Talks continue over airport job losses

Potential job losses at Manston airport are still a reality as the statutory consultation with its staff ended this week. Airport chief executive Charles Buchanan confirmed that talks were ongoing after the minimum 90-day period was fulfilled this week.

Meanwhile, the airport will submit a new proposal for expansion to the council's Airport Working Group next month. Campaigners against the expansion oppose Buchanan's plans as the possibility of noisy night flights would affect their sleep and quality of life.

Buchanan understands the concerns but believes the impact of the expansion must be balanced with the economic benefits. Plans to welcome a major airline are still being negotiated.

IoT Gazette 24th Jun 2011

Advisory group recommend no night flights at airport

"No flights to be scheduled between 11pm and 7am at Manston" was the recommendation to the council at a meeting of the Airport Working Party this week.  The suggestion was one of ten agreed during the group's final meeting before yesterday's elections.  The advisory group also recommended that:

• There is a period of one hour at either end of the flying day to allow for late and early arriving flights only
• A penalty be applied to any flights arriving during said one hour periods
• No take offs be allowed between 11pm and 7am
• A schedule of exceptions be prepared to include 'mercy flights' aid flights, medical emergencies, aviation emergencies and coastguard movements
• A new Section 106 Agreement be negotiated within 12 months
• Infratil or any future airport operator be asked to contribute to the cost of a council airport officer and that the requirement is included in a new section 106 Agreement
• The AWP considers undertaking an investigation into the relationship between a possible Parkway Station and the Airport and the need for it
• The council request that airport operators Infratil reviews the operation of the Manston Airport Consultatory Committee
• The council request a quarterly report from Infratil on how they perform with regards the 106 agreement

The recommendation will go before a newly formed overview and scrutiny panel on May 19 following the elections which will in turn make its recommendations to the new cabinet.

thisiskent 6th May 2011