Manston, elections, and money

Dennis Franklin is a regular contributor to the IoT Gazette letters page, and sent us this letter to publish in full, just in case the Gazette doesn't...

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I know what follows is lengthy, but I am trying to make some important points about Manston, forthcoming elections, and the use of public money. Also, I feel there have been more pro Manston letters published than against, so I hope space can be found for the following:

Astute readers of the Thanet Gazette letters page will realise I am opposed to Manston airport for 2 reasons, one is I am against social injustice. There are 60,000 households in Thanet, and perhaps 10,000 including some who are not in Thanet, who are effected by low flying aircraft creating air and noise pollution, asthma, pulmonary disease, stress and lower life expectancy.

I do not understand why those in favour of the airport, most of whom are not affected this way, think they can bully those who are, into sacrificing their quality of life, and devaluation of their homes, for what? Most of any new jobs will go to outside experts, and its misguided to think it will increase tourism, it won't, not if 50 to 100 aircraft a day fly low over Ramsgate Harbour, which an economist in the Thanet Gazette predicted it will be needed to make Manston viable!

My second objection is that I do not agree public funds i.e. Income and Council Tax money should be used to subsidise private enterprise! I have been in correspondence with UKIP KCC Councillor Roger Latchford on this, because KCC UKIP Councillor Trevor Shonk tried to conceal from me that there was a proposal to build another railway station 1 mile from one at Minster, and one and a half miles from Ramsgate station, purely for the use of Ann Gloag the owner of Manston Airport, at a cost to the public of £10.5 million! I suggested there are more worthy ways to spend £10.5 million of our money, like redeveloping the disused gas works site in Ramsgate for hundreds of social/affordable homes for a start!

Shamefully more or less every local politician from Laura Sandys to Green (sic) Party councillor Ian Driver, want to use public money to subsidise Manston, why? Because they are electioneering for the forthcoming elections, that’s why! Don't be duped, they intend to cynically abandon and sell out the people who live under the flight paths, who will have their lives ruined by low flying aircraft. And would those people involved with Why Not Manston, please note, every attempt to make Manston profitable has failed, even when EU Jet tried bussing people in from Medway!

I agree with Mike Pearce in his article in last week’s Thanet Gazette, it will stick in the craw of those people who lost their jobs due to KCC cut backs, which also reduced funding for road repairs, schools, libraries, social services for young and old etc, only instead to see millions of pounds of public money being poured into private pockets to try and shore up this obsolete airport! If UKIP have their way and bully KCC into coming up with £200 millions of tax payers money to subsidise Manston airport, just to get elected, it will be a travesty!

Finally, will people stop banging on about Manston's glorious military past? The Cold War ended 25 years ago, and I don't remember seeing a single National Serviceman who didn't loathe every wasted minute of it!

Dennis Franklin, Ramsgate

Ramsgate chooses Beauty not Blues

Well, well, well – what is this that I spy on the blue-tinted map that shows who’s got the power in councils across Kent? A rosy red glow has settled over Ramsgate. Going against the electoral tide for the South East, the Ramsgate lefties spread their scarlet stain across the wards, scooping up seat after seat.

Those in the know point to Labour's pre-election pledge to oppose night flights as being the balance-tipping deal-clincher. Industrious and idle alike, the people of Ramsgate value their beauty sleep, and didn't want Manston to make them ugly. So they put their kisses next to the Labour names.

This leaves the Conservatives with a dreadful dilemma - they might even be looking forward to the Independents taking the decision out of their hands...

They can stick with Plan A, and allow the Manston Kiwis to fly as many rusting freight crates as they like over sleeping town below, and say goodbye to the dream of ever winning a seat in Ramsgate again. Sleepless and grumpy, the voters won’t give their votes to the very people who made them become ugly.

Or the Conservatives can take the splendid Bureau Veritas report to heart, and accept that the economic gain of night flights at Manston will not in any way match the social and economic pain. This would mean turning down a future night flight application made by their pal Charles Buchanan (recently seen up close and chummy with ruddy ex-Number 2 Latchford).

Back the airport, or back in power? An excruciating choice for the Blue corner.

It remains to be seen whether Mr Buchanan is cute enough to recognise this, and to resist the temptation to submit another night flight application… or will he embarrass his blue friends by asking them to decide soon one way or another?

We watch and wait.

Warning to TDC and Infratil over Manston

Thanet District Council and Infratil, the owners of Manston Airport, have been warned they could end up in the High Court if the night-flights consultation process is botched. The warning has come from Paul Twyman, the chairman of airport watchdog the Kent International Airport Consultative Committee (KIACC).

An application from Infratil is expected to be placed in under two weeks and will detail the number of planes the company wants to be allowed to fly in and out of the airport between 11pm and 7am. There are concerns that any consultation will be undermined by lack of noise-monitoring data, an unclear policy about the routes that planes can take approaching and departing the airport, and the robustness of the consultation procedure.

The results of a noise-assesment report being prepared by consultancy Bickerdike Allen Partners, and commissioned by Infratil, should also be made available to the public before the consultation starts, many people are arguing. They say that any report is assessed and reviewed before a consultation starts – not during it. Mr Twyman said:

"I urge the council to think very carefully about they way in which they handle this consultation. If you go ahead with a half-baked process, if you make a hash of it, then I’m sure there will be people out there who would take a dim view of that – and I suspect there will be people who seek a judicial review. KIACC has spotted a pretty big hole here. It’s clear that in the last seven years a lot of nettles have not been grasped and now the time has come for KIACC to start to help the council to grasp those nettles. If the council go off half-cocked on this consultation, it could find itself in the High Courts. The night noise consultation could be starting in about 14 days and there are big issues around it."

The Section 106 agreement, a document that governs flight times and routes, is also out of date and needs to be revised, says Mr Twyman. The consultation will take place over a 12-week period and will involve meetings, phone polls, roadshow sessions and questionnaires. However, delays while reports are digested and analysed could mean that the process runs into Christmas. Brian White, Thanet council’s director of regeneration, said the local authority had not seen Infratil’s figures for the quota-count system, despite claims that people at the council had already seen them. When asked by Steve Higgins of the No Night Flights campaign if he had seen the proposed quota-count number, Mr White said:

"The Freedom of Information Act requires that anything the council holds it releases, but we haven’t got anything."

Nick Cole, of Monkton Parish Council, said: "It strikes me that there is probably a lot more work being done than we are being led to believe here:

"If the consultation is about to start in a matter of weeks, then I think it would be fair that some of the figures be given tonight. We must have an indication about how many flights we are talking about during night-time."

Charles Buchanan, the airport’s chief executive, responded by saying:

"I am not in a position to give a final number. You do not release half the specification in advance – you launch the whole thing when people can see the whole picture. They can see the benefits on one hand and the problems of the other. It would be misleading and diverting to look at just one part of it and that’s where we are."

At the meeting in public at the airport terminal on Friday last week, KIACC members voted against holding a meeting at the "other end of the runway" for villagers in places such as Monkton, Minster and St Nicholas-at-Wade. After a request for more information to be made available to more people, Mr Twyman proposed a series of meetings to inform the public in the villages and Herne Bay, but it was voted down. Conservative councillor Roger Latchford, Thanet council’s cabinet member who deals with the airport, voted against such meetings. However, a meeting on the application will take place in Ramsgate.

During the meeting it also emerged that the council’s mobile noise-monitor, which should be used to monitor the noise made by aircraft overflying areas such as St Nicholas, is still out of operation. Chris Wells, the council’s Conservative cabinet member for the environment, said it should be back in use – and in an airport employee’s garden – very soon as it had taken longer than expected to be fixed.

The airport’s application for a secondary radar tower has received planning consent. It will be built after the contract has been put out to tender. Four objections to the application had been received, but Mr White said that there were "no material reasons" why the application could not be approved, on Friday, August 6.

yourthanet.co.uk

Furore over fast track for night flight plans

Christine Tongue

Clipping: thisiskent

Changes to night flights at Manston airport were rushed through by Thanet council on Thursday in the hope of securing a major freight operator. Councillors unanimously agreed to pass changes to flight times to allow planes to take off and land for an extra 30 minutes in the evening until 11.30pm and between 6am and 7am. The agreement, to come into effect in May, is on the condition that Kent International Airport signs a deal with a large cargo operator, rumoured to be British Airways. Deputy leader Roger Latchford told councillors it was the chance to develop jobs for Thanet.

The agreement could mean an extra 112 jobs available at the airport including, control staff, firefighters, warehouse operatives and aircraft handlers. Infratil also estimate a further 300 indirect jobs would be generated from extra activity at the airport. A handful of protesters gathered in the public gallery including environmental activist Christine Tongue holding a sign saying: "What’s the rush?" Kent Council for the Protection Rural England director Hilary Newport said:

"There is a real risk that this airport will have an effect on tourism because Ramsgate will become unattractive. We will take advice on if this is something that needs to be challenged."

Councillors were then presented with a new seven-page agreement between Infratil and Thanet council and were given a five-minute adjournment to consider it. Eastcliff ward Cllr David Green proposed four amendments all of which were opposed. These were the use of runways away from Ramsgate, a reduction of the initial trial period from 18 months to nine months, not leaving the agreement open-ended to prevent another airline walking into the agreement and doubling fines when planes break the night-time curfew.

Central Harbour ward Cllr Peter Campbell demonstrated his discomfort at the speed at which the decision had come before full council. He said:

"I do not like being bounced into this situation. We have not consulted with residents but because of the current economic situation I will support it, but we need to tighten up on monitoring."

Nethercourt ward Cllrs Jill Kirby and Cllr Brenda Rogers hit the streets to find out what their residents thought of the proposed changes. Out of 338 people they asked, 80.5 per cent were in favour of the changes to night flights. A Thanet council spokesman said:

"A total of 11 movements a week of 747-400 aircraft has been proposed, with only a portion of these scheduled during these times. The arrangements will be reviewed every six months and, as part of the decision, an independent environmental consultant will be commissioned to carry out an assessment of the flights taking place during night-time hours. Infratil has also committed to improving noise monitoring and reporting."

KIA chief executive Matt Clarke said:

"I’m very pleased and we’re doing our best to get through the process.  We are grateful to the members of the Thanet council for its swift action to assist us with our request to extend the scheduled airport operating hours. Our growth as a regional airport is supported by local, regional and national planning policy and this decision enables our business to compete on a level playing field with other South East airports. Discussions continue with the prospective new carrier and we are pleased to have provided them with such a clear signal of community support for the activity, jobs and investment their business would deliver to Thanet."

BA plans cargo flights from Manston

Clipping: thisiskent

British Airways, seen landing at Manston on Wednesday after redirection due to a fluid spillage, could be flying cargo from the airport as easrly as May. British Airways is understood to be planning cargo flights out of Manston from as early as May – a move that will create hundreds of jobs. Thanet council chiefs revealed on Wednesday that night flights over the isle could increase with the imminent arrival of a new freight operator.

The announcement came after Kent International Airport bosses approached the council to negotiate a change to the hours it can run flights because they are trying to secure a "major European airline". Ramsgate Labour councillor David Green said: "It has been strongly rumoured to be British Airways World Cargo." KIA chief executive Matt Clarke said the identity of the airline it was in talks with was "commercially sensitive" and refused to confirm or deny it was British Airways. He said:

"I can confirm that we are in discussion with an international air freight operator about a potential relocation of their operation to KIA but I am unable to disclose who it is for reasons of commercial confidentiality. The discussions are at a sensitive stage and I am not in a position to add to the speculation regarding who the operator may or may not be."

A BA World Cargo spokesman said

"We are in the process of tendering our long haul ground handling operations within the United Kingdom. These operations are currently based at Stansted Airport. However, as part of the tender process, we are considering a number of different airport options within the UK."

Council leader Sandy Ezekiel speculated that if BA did arrive, it could create at least 200 jobs. An extraordinary meeting of full council will take place next Thursday at the Cecil Street offices in Margate at 5.30pm to consider the airport’s request. Its owners Infratil want to be able to run flights for an extra 30 minutes in the evening until 11.30pm and between 6am and 7am. The council is expected to review these changes every six months after the first 18 months of their introduction. It is anticipated that an extra 11 flights a week will happen, though council economy boss Roger Latchford said only a portion of the extra flights would occur in the renegotiated hours.

More night time flights for Manston?

Controversial plans for more night time flights Kent International Airport at Manston are being considered by the local council. The proposals, which could become a reality as early as this May, would see dozens more flights into Kent International Airport every month. The first planes would take off or land at Manston from 6am and would operate until 11.30pm.

Airport owner Infratril is currently in talks with a major European airline that wants to use the site for long haul international cargo movements. The unnamed company hopes to fly 747 aircraft into airport up to 11 times a week. The plan would require a step change to the section 106 environmental agreement that restricts the airport's operations and is likely to be met with opposition.

Cllr Richard Nicholson, leader of Thanet Labour group, said he was appalled, angry and surprised at the detail of the announcement, which was made unexpectedly at a hastily-called press conference this morning. He said:

"It's wrong that information should be released to the media and therefore the public at a conference arranged by the council when many of its own members had no idea of the conference or of its content. Infratil has indicated it wants alterations to the night flying policy, which is the right and proper way to proceed. But the Section 106 agreement advises that there should be a substantial consultation period before any alterations are made to agreed flying times."

Councillors will debate the issue at an extraordinary meeting next Thursday and, if approved, a revised Section 106 agreement would be in place for the next 18 months. Thanet council says the document would then be reviewed every six months until a comprehensive night time flying policy covering the period from 2010 and 2018 is drawn up. Cllr Roger Latchford, deputy leader of Thanet council, said:

"The application has only just come in and the council is moving quickly to ensure that everyone is able to have their say on it."

kentonline 4th Feb 2009