Consultation: what's the point?

What with talk of cosy chats, back-room deals, and absolutely no draft reports, I began to wonder whether the consultation was going to be a pointless charade. So I asked what would happen if we say "No" to night flights...

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Dear Councillor Bayford,

I'm Phil Rose - the guy in the green T-shirt who was the last to speak from the floor at yesterday's Thanet Local Board meeting. In the rush to close the meeting, I forgot that I had a supplementary question, and I would like to take this opportunity to put it you:

Over a period of 3 months, we will be told a lot about night flights, and will be asked our opinions about having more night flights. IF the majority of us say "No" to nights flights, what will you (and the rest of TDC and KCC) do on our behalf? Will the number of night flights go up or down?

Many thanks in advance for your swift reply.

Yours sincerely,

Phil Rose

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Dear Mr Rose

Thank you for your email.

I think it would be inappropriate for me to speculate what the Council's policy might be in light of the consultation.

I will repeat what I said at the meeting, that our approach to this will be as objective as possible.

I would like to think that whatever our final policy is, that people will consider it to be reasonable and fair, for both the benefit of all residents of Thanet and the wider region.

Yours sincerely

Cllr Robert Bayford

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This worries me. I think the phrase "it would be inappropriate for me to speculate what the Council's policy might be" should read "it would be inexcusable for me not to know what the Council's policy might be".

Regardless of whether TDC view the opinion of the majority as just one of the factors to be considered, or as one of the key factors, or as the primary factor, or even as the only factor to be considered, they must (surely?) have prepared their responses to Yes, No and Maybe results.

Unless they're planning to ignore us.

Flight path? What flight path?

Some people think that Infratil is the sole driving force in the untidy, unfolding story of night flights. Not so! Thanet District Council has a democratic mandate to represent the Thanetian multitude, and has the last word on night flights. Catch: some councillors may not have heard what they're voting on.

I can't help feeling that the further-flung TDC councillors may be wondering what the fuss is about. So many of them live so far from the flight path, I would be surprised if they notice even the 3am bone-rattlers. In the map below, the blue line is the flight path - click it for a closer look:

And the other end of the flight path goes over Herne Bay (as if you hadn't noticed):

TDC are thinking of applying some kind of post code weighting to the replies to the public consultation - the nearer you live to the flight path, the more your opinion counts for. Maybe they should consider applying the same weighting to their own votes in Council?

Resident storms stage at meeting

Malcolm Kirkaldie

Clipping: thisiskent

KENT County Council's leader was confronted on stage by an angry resident during a public meeting in Ramsgate last Monday evening. Retired serviceman Malcolm Kirkaldie stormed the political platform demanding to be heard after county chairman Bill Hayton had insisted on questions and not comment. Mr Kirkaldie shouted, "It is not a democracy" before going head-to-head with KCC leader Paul Carter on stage.

The Thanet Local Board meeting was hosted at Chatham House school in Ramsgate and gave residents an opportunity to hear plans for the area and quiz county council politicians. More than 200 people had listened intently to speeches by Mr Carter, Manston airport chief executive Charles Buchanan and Thanet council's leader Bob Bayford.

Tempers flared when Mr Hayton denied residents the opportunity to put their questions into context. Mr Kirkaldie told the Isle of Thanet Gazette after the meeting:

"I leaned into Mr Carter and told him that we very politely listened to all of you speak and Mr Hayton just keeps interrupting with, 'What's your question, what's your question?'"

Panel member and Labour councillor Elizabeth Green said:

"Mr Hayton prevented residents from asking questions openly and it changed the feel of the meeting. Mr Kirkaldie wouldn't have stormed the stage if he hadn't been treated so poorly."

Mrs Green has written to Mr Carter calling for Mr Hayton to either resign or apologise for the way he handled question time. Mr Carter reinforced his vision to get rail commuter times between Thanet and London down to under 60 minutes and his hopes for a new train station serving Manston airport. Mr Bayford used the meeting as an opportunity to raise awareness of the imminent consultation on plans to overturn a ban on regular night flights from Manston airport. He said:

"The first thing is the section 106 agreement [between Infratil and Thanet council] doesn't require us to consult with the public at all but we believe this is best practice."

Mr Bayford denied allegations from members of the audience that Thanet council was in "cahoots" with airport owners Infratil, maintaining that development of the airport must go through the proper planning process.

By saul leese saul.leese@krnmedia.co.uk

Exchange of views

A little article here from kentonline.co.uk that will come as no news to regular visitors to this site. I'm delighted to see that it generated a string of pleasingly measured and thoughtful readers' comments. Do feel free to add you own, either here or on kentonline.

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Plans to allow night flights from Kent International Airport, Manston, received by Thanet council

A formal application to operate night flights to and from Kent International Airport has been received by Thanet council. The plans by Infratil, the company which owns the Manston site, would allow flights from 11pm-7am. Up to eight aircraft movements are expected during this period, although Infratil says the majority of aircraft would take off or land from 11pm-11.30pm and 6am-7am.

After publishing the proposed night-time flying policy on its website, Thanet council said it would carry out a public consultation, expected to last at least three months. It will also seek an independent assessment of the report and provide advice to local residents, explaining how they would be affected. A previous application to allow night flights was submitted to the council in 2009 but Infratil has now also prepared a noise assessment report.

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The online comments:

Jon wrote:
Manston needs to properly prove its potenital worth to the local economy before any night flight licence can be considered. The only way in which the airport can be of real benefit to the economy is if passenger services become established as successful. Manston must demonstrate that there is a need for passenger (not freight) night flights. Until they do, there should be no question of Thanet District Council awarding a licence, because the airport cannot yet demonstrate that the economic advantages would outweigh the environmental disadvantages.

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Bob wrote:
I am at a loss to understand why Manston needs night flights at all during this stage of its evolution. The only possible reason for night flights (whether passenger or freight) is a lack of capacity during the day, this currently is not the case. Please do not think I am in favour of any night flights even if there were day time capacity issues, I am most definitely not. It is totally inappropriate to bring large, very noisy, aircraft into Manston over built up areas at night. One of the many reasons people live in this part of Kent is its tranquillity, particularly at night. This plan will ruin that for very many people.

Do not be hoodwinked by promises of employment - the number of new jobs and new people employed at the airport or in associated businesses because of this proposal will be negligible. Also do not be hoodwinked by the sound maps produced by the airport's consultants - we all know sound travels further at night. No one in Thanet will be safe from the menace of night flights.

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Dee wrote:
Good the more flights that are allowed from Manston the better,it is about time Manston was used like it should be. I am fed up with those who keep moaning about it. We want MORE jobs and LESS moaners. I remember when the RAF was based there and the American air force - then we had REAL noise.

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Dave wrote:
Has Manston reached its capacity for passenger and freight flights during the day? Has this potential been fully explored? i welcome a fully functioning airport but this seems a massive increase for us to bear.

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maidofkent wrote:
night flights would mean more night road traffic, which is another noise generator. I say no night flights leaving after midnight

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Clare Simon wrote:
I totally agree with previous comments - if all day slots were full there might be some reason for disturbance of local residents - but although there are low flying, noisy cargo flights, they are at least by day, and not that numerous most days. So why on earth should we allow night flights to disturb us? It is not a fully functioning airport by any stretch of the imagination and previous agreements did NOT allow night flights - so why now? What has changed?

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Sarah wrote:
Dee will be campaigning to send children back up chimneys and remove the vote from women next – just like in the good old days! The world has moved on and we have to take account of the damage this proposal will do to the environment in its widest sense.

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Chris wrote:
am a bit of a loss to why people who live in the vicinity of an airport which has been ear marked for expansion for years and prior to that an RAF base. Should get up on there soap boxes when there is a suggestion of 9 planes landing through the night. Thanet tranquil!! Who are you trying to fool?

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Heather wrote:
People like Chris just don't seem to understand that there is currently no need for night flights, there are penlty of day time slots to land these aircraft. Why disturb us at night when we don't have to be disturbed. When the day time slots are full there then needs to be a debate on night time landings but I would point out that Heathrow and other major airports in the South East ban night nights and their day time schedules are full. Please Thanet Council reject this proposal.

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Keith Jordan wrote:
The reason for night flights when there is still daytime capacity is obvious. Overnight delivery flights leave China and other parts of Asia at midnight arriving into Europe around 04.00 giving time for sorting and onward movement into UK and other EU countries for that day's delivery.

Similarly freight collected in UK and Europe during the day can be shipped out of Manston at midnight for delivery into the USA the next day. Infratil's claim of flights mainly from 23.00 - 23.30 and 07.00-07.30 is nonsense. Flight, road and general airport activity will ensure a fully-disturbed night's sleep. Do not allow it to happen.

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Chris wrote:
I think Heather you need to look a broader picture. If the aircraft are not allowed to land at Manston at the time they want. They will land at other air ports such as Luton, resulting in a missed opportunity for Manston and for Thanet. The aviation industry is geared to keep air craft in the air to be efficient. It can not be operate on a 9 to 5 basis to suite the moaner of Thanet. Additionally if you look at Haethrow and Gatwick they do operate night flights between 2 am and 6pm but on a reduced scale. Have a look at the air port schedules there are plenty of flights taking of at 4am!

I also personally feel that an independent adjudicator is brought in, as Thanet council are not equipped and experienced to deal with type of planning request. The success of the airport balances on being flexible, if the airport is a success it will create much needed jobs in area which has the Highest Unemployment rate in the county. In essence bringing dignity back to people of Thanet.

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brenda wrote:
I completely agree with Chris. You have to look at the wider picture and realise that sometimes even passenger flights get delayed through no fault of their own, as did my daughters flight from Spain last week due to the Spanish strike and her 11pm flight into Gatwick didnt land till 3am. All airports have to be flexible. I for one would love to see Manston used to its full capacity and the sooner the better as Thanet needs to be put on the map. What a god send that flybe has taken the plunge, I hope other budget airlines follow very soon, but if they are always threatened with hefty fines and get bombarded with complaints from the anti brigade then I think they will think long and hard before coming here.

Night flying proposal 2010

So here it is...

Infratil have finally, after 13 months of waiting, given us a figure on the flights they expect to operate at night. To summarise:

• They wish to extend unrestricted operational hours from 0700-2300 to 0600-2330
• Between 2330-0600 they now wish to operate scheduled aircraft which were not allowed under the previous agreement
• Aircraft up to a 747 will be allowed to operate between 2330-0600
• The numbers allowed will be up to 3 747's per night between 2330 and 0600, 7 days a week, 365 days a year
• The very noisiest planes will be allowed to operate within these times with a meagre fine for doing so
• East Midlands fines the noisiest planes £5,000-£10,000. Manston will fine these ageing aircraft only £500 to £1,000.
• The council are legally obliged to hold a public consultation.
• All documents released by the council can be found here.

Please stay tuned to this blog for further updates. Comments have been turned on. Feel free to vent your spleen. We are actively looking for people wanting to join in with fighting this totally unnecessary and life changing blight on towns and villages in East Kent. Sign the petition, tell your neighbours, keep your eyes and ears open for events and public meetings, but most of all, tell the council exactly what you feel.

Night flights: Herne Bay gets screwed

If you have dodgy blood pressure, or "anger management issues" it's probably a good idea not to read any further.

Infratil (who own and run Manston Airport) have applied to Thanet District Council to change the night time flying policy, allowing them many more night flights. They want to use a "noise quota system", which is a bit like calorie counting, but for noise. Every plane has Quota Count, or QC, number - QC½, QC1, QC2, QC4, QC8, QC16. The airport is given an Annual Quota Count total, which is must not exceed. Every time a plane flies in or out, its QC number is added to the running tally for the year.

The standard definition of "night" for the aviation industry is 2300 hours to 0700 hours (11pm to 7am), but Infratil want their Annual QC total to apply to flights between 2330 and 0600 (11:30pm to 6am).

Infratil want to be allowed flights "no greater than QC4". No other comparable airport is allowed anything greater than QC2.

Currently, the fines double with each repeat offence for an aircraft, starting at £1,000 and rising rapidly. This is intended to discourage repeat offenders who would just shrug off a small fine as a running cost. Infratil want to replace this with a flat-rate system.

There's currently £18,000 of "Community Contributions" (i.e. fines) languishing unspent in the kitty, so Infratil guaranteeing £10k isn't much of an offer - they're already being fined more than that.

Here's the galling bit: Planes over Herne Bay will only get fined half as much as planes over Ramsgate. Planes over Herne Bay will only be counted at half their actual QC rating - a QC4 plane would only add 2 points to the annual tally. It's not hard to see what the outcome will be: weather permitting, Manston will be routing as much traffic as possible to the west. We'll get hammered.

I'll be returning to this over the next few days (and weeks and months, I expect), and let you know how you can help stop this bonkers plan. In the meantime, I suggest you contact your local councillors, and ask them where they stand on night flights in general, and over Herne Bay in particular.

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Reculver

Gabrielle Davis (Conservative) gabrielle.davis@canterbury.gov.uk

Gillian Reuby (Conservative) gillian.reuby@canterbury.gov.uk

Ann Taylor (Conservative) ann.taylor@canterbury.gov.uk

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Heron

Robert Bright (Liberal Democrat) robert.bright@canterbury.gov.uk

Ron Flaherty (Liberal Democrat) ron.flaherty@canterbury.gov.uk

Ken Hando (Liberal Democrat) ken.hando@canterbury.gov.uk

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Greenhill and Eddington

Margaret Flaherty (Liberal Democrat) margaret.flaherty@canterbury.gov.uk

Roger Matthews (Independent) roger.matthews@canterbury.gov.uk

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Herne and Broomfield

Evelyn Bissett (Conservative) evelyn.bissett@canterbury.gov.uk

Sharron Sonnex (Conservative) sharron.sonnex@canterbury.gov.uk

Peter Vickery-Jones (Conservative) peter.vickeryjones@canterbury.gov.uk

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West Bay

Peter Lee (Conservative) peter.lee@canterbury.gov.uk

Vince McMahan (Conservative) vincent.mcmahan@canterbury.gov.uk

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Here's the rest of Infratil's Evil Quota Count Plan (more documentation coming soon):

The proposed Quota Count System for Manston Airport is as follows:

a. Night-time Period will be 2300 to 0700 local time.

b. Night-time Quota Period will be 2330 to 0600 local time.

c. Annual Quota Count will be the sum of the individual Quota Counts (QC) of all flights arriving or departing during the Night-time Quota Period within a calendar year [January to December).

d. There will be no scheduling of aircraft of Quota Count greater than QC4 within the Night-time Period.

e. Annual Quota Count not to exceed 1,995.

f. Preferred Departure Runway and Noise Abatement Routes as set out in clauses 4 and 5 respectively of the Second Schedule to S105 dated 25 September 2000 (runway 10 for arrivals and runway 28 for departures) to be used whenever possible during the Night-time Period consistent with safe operations.

g. In recognition of the lower impact of movements approaching from or departing towards the west, movements which operate on such routes will count towards the Annual Quota Count and Community Contribution at 50% of their certified rate.

h. For movements exceeding QC4 during the Night-time Quota Period, the operator will make a Community Contribution of £1,000 for each occasion to the Manston Airport Environmental Improvement Fund (MAEIF).

i. MSE will guarantee minimum annual contributions to MAEIF of £10,000.

When is a schedule not a schedule?

It's worth complaining to Manston for two reasons: they have to record and report it; and they tell you exactly which plane you were complaining about. With enough information about which planes and carriers misbehave, and when, we may be able to spot if there is method to their badness. Cynical curmudgeon that I am, I can't help wondering if there's an unwritten schedule operating.

Complaining to Manston about aircraft noise usually turns out to be an unsatisfactory experience. With repetition, it becomes frustrating and then dispiriting - "stuff it, what's the point?". This infectious inertia is, of course, all just part of their Evil Plan - draining the life from you by taking ages to do the bare minimum. The standard reply doesn't answer any direct question you may have asked. You are told that everything is fine, that your complaint has been logged and the details of the flight(s) in question - date, time, aircraft, operator, and possibly some comments.

The logging and the details are what matters. Infratil (the airport operators) are obliged to report on the complaints they receive - they present the figures as number of complaints, and complainants, by area. It's not nice to see them gloating over low complaint figures that simply don't reflect the effect that night flights are having. Every time you get one of those frustrating replies from Manston, you've actually scored a direct hit - keep it as a trophy. Build a collection if you like.

And now we come to those precious details, and my Evil Plan...

Step 1: whenever you hear a night flight, let me know by email or by adding a comment to this article - I need the date, time, and roughly where you were (town, not street). This will give us a rolling record of activity, which we can compare with the BAP report estimate of 2 night flights a week. Ho, ho.

Step 2: use Manston's online complaints form, which will (should?) send you a confirmation of receipt with a rather oddly re-presented version of your complaint. Hang on to this: if you haven't had a reply within a fortnight (which is not unknown) you'll need to chase them.

Step 3: when the reply arrives from Manston, you can dance a jig of glee, knowing that you have scored a double hit - your complaint has been logged, and you have some flight details. Send me the flight details (by email or using the comments at the bottom of this article), and I'll match them up to the reports that came in at Step 1.

Hey presto! We will steadily build a picture of who's doing what, and when. If there's anything that resembles a timetable, Infratil will need to explain it.

Here's an added bonus: any replies to earlier complaints have suddenly become valuable. Like me, you may be kicking yourself for having binned them, cursing their uselessness, but if you do have any, please send me the flight details - the more the better. Incidentally, if anyone knows a quicker, easier way to get this information, do let me know, and save everyone some time.

BAP report on Night Flights

At long last we're getting a clearer picture of what Infratil wants to do with our sky, and it doesn't make pretty reading: a 25-fold increase in night flights, and some sly counting to make it look less. The owners of Manton airport first started asking for more night flights at the beginning of 2009, during the BAWC débâcle. At the time, they claimed it was not just pressing, but urgent. Some 20 months have passed, during which they submitted another request, which was useless as it was missing key bits of information like... er... how many night flights, and how much noise.

Infratil (Manston's owners) have now got someone to help them type the numbers - Bickerdike Allen Partners. Charles Buchanan recently portayed BAP as being independent consultants with a record of even-handedness. Looking at their website, their emphasis seems to be more on acoustic design and sound-proofing buildings, rather than flight paths. But noise is noise, right?

Risking torture and death, my alarmingly effective spies have brought me BAP's draft findings, and they make grim reading:

• Firstly, these people reckon that currently there are 2 night flights A WEEK, on average. You may agree with this number. You may not.
• Secondly, they are seeking permission for 7.7 night flights A NIGHT, on average. You may regard this as acceptable, or even desirable. You may not.
• What really pees me off is the way Infratil are trying to move the goalposts by tinkering with the definition of "night". Across the UK, and throughout the aviation industry, "night" is 2300-0700 (or 11pm to 7am, in old money).

Infratil are fond of laying claim to 'shoulder periods' which simply have the effect of shortening the night. In the table below, you will see that Infratil are quite brazen about this manipulation. During the average night, 7.7 planes would be flying, but only 3 of them would count towards the Quota Count - simply and solely because Infratil have decided to designate 2330-0600 as the only period of time that would be subjected to Quota Count. Thanet District Council must nip this in the bud.

• Infratil's request for a quota count of 1,995 for the period 2330-0600 is enough for the three flights they are forecasting in that arbitrarily shortened time-frame.
• To cater for the 7.7 flights they are forecasting in the period covered by the standard definition of night, i.e. 2300-0700, they would need a quota count of 5,120.

Night-time aircraft movements at Manston currently occur on an ad-hoc basis and involve aircraft of the type that are expected to fly in the future, for example the B747-400. The number of movements that take place currently vary from week to week and month to month but are typically around 2 per week at present.

Future Night-time Aircraft Movements

Up to the year 2018, MSE have developed forecasts for future night-time aircraft movements that indicate the following number of movements over a calendar year and during a typical night:-

	Night-time Aircraft Movements (2018)
	Annual		Typical night
Hours	Passenger	Freight	Passenger	Freight
23.00 - 23.30	1,016	57	2.8	0.4
23.30 - 06.00*	610	471	1.7	1.3
06.00 - 07.00	407	157	1.1	0.4
	2,033	785	5.6	2.1

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

nightflight-nightmare

Listen up, good people: your Quality of Life is at stake. Scheduled night flights would be a nightmare - you can help stop them before they start.

The current owners of Manston Airport are about to ask for permission to schedule passenger and cargo flights throughout the night. This is a major change in the way the airport is used, so Thanet District Council will be launching a public consultation.

My glum forecast is that this will turn out to be a ham-fisted and flaky exercise, with both TDC and Infratil (the airport owners) doing their best to engineer a "yes" result. Smoke and mirrors, misinformation and partial truths will all play their part.

I've been to some of the public meetings, and it's clear that a lot of good people have a lot of good questions that need answering. What I am hoping to do is collect all those good questions in one place. They can then be honed and sharpened into sharp and deadly one- or two-liners, which everyone will then have at their fingertips, which could be very handy for the next meeting.

I've started you off with a couple of dozen - I expect you've got a few dozen more between you! Please use the Comments facility at the bottom of the article to:

• add a new heading

• add a new question

• rephrase an existing question

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A: CONSULTATION

A1. What area will be covered: Ramsgate, selected postcodes, everyone under the flight path... ?
A2. When will the consultation start and finish?
A3. How is TDC going to make sure that everyone knows about the consultation?
A4. What information will be provided before and during the consultation?
A5. Will the information provided be in plain English?
A6. Will there be a "Yes/No" to night flights question?
A7. How are the results going to be assessed and communicated?
A8. What if the majority say "No" to Night Flights?
A9. Will under-18s get the vote?
A10. How much is the consultation costing, and who's paying?
A11. Will the consultation be just on Night Flights, or on a whole new S106?
etc., etc.

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B: FACTS

B1. How many planes?
B2. How noisy?
B3. What days of the week will they be flying?
B4. What times of day?
B5. What flight paths will they be using for take-offs to the East and West, and landings from the East and West?
B6. Will 2300-0700 (11pm to 7am) remain the working definition of "night"?
etc., etc.

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C: Old (current) S106

C1. Why risk judicial review by extending S106 without having fully (or even adequately) enforced the existing one?
C2. Who decided not to enforce the existing S106, year after year?
etc., etc.

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D: New S106

D1. How does TDC propose to monitor the new S106?
D2. How does TDC propose to enforce the new S106?
D3. What sanctions and fines are available to TDC under the new S106?
D4. Will TDC exercise the sanctions and impose fines?
etc., etc.

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E: NOISE

E1. Why not have more mobile sound monitors?
E2. How much does a mobile sound monitor cost?
E3. Where can we see the latest "sound footprint" maps?
etc., etc.

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F: POLLUTION

F1. Are there any analyses available to reassure us that the aquifer is clean?
F2. Is there an inspection programme in place to monitor the effects of increasing traffic on aquifer pollution?
etc., etc.