You say (2)

#Manston #nightflights

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I am totally opposed to any night flights operating between the hours of 11pm and 7am into or out of Manston Airport. I and my family do not want to be disturbed during the night by aircraft noise as proper rest and undisturbed sleep are vital to one's wellbeing.

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Click to have your say in the Public Consultation on Night Flights

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I object to the proposal to allow the operation of night flights out of Manston.

Prior to living in Kent, I used to live close to Gatwick, and am aware of how night time flights blight the entire community.

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You say (1)

#Manston #nightflights

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I am strongly against Manston’s night flying proposal.

I changed the habit of a lifetime at the last election and voted Labour because of the stand they made on this subject.

They seem to now be sitting on the fence on this matter reneging on a pre election promise.

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Click to have your say in the Public Consultation on Night Flights

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I live directly under the flight path and wish to register my protest against Infratil's proposals. I have already been woken up several times in the past by very noisy cargo planes flying very low over my house in the middle of the night. Double-glazing and thick loft insulation does not block out the noise.

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Cut out the middleman

Looks like Manston may want to filter any responses it receives in the night flight consultation process.

A couple of our readers are shocked and horrified. Not only has Manston somehow managed to insert itself into the consultation process (by inviting people to send their responses direct to the airport), but it appears that anything the airport receives will not necessarily be sent to TDC.

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Tannoyance

Where in Ramsgate can you hear the Tannoys at the port and the station? Wherever it is, that's where this chap lives. He signs himself Mr Porter, although his email address suggests his name is Mr Turner. Either way, he asks some oft-repeated questions.

Quick answers: (1) and (2) - it is because we live and have our livelihoods under and near the flight paths that we are so concerned; (3) not sure how this is relevant - I don't need to be a civil engineer to have an opinion on whether I want a dual carriageway built in my gardern; (4) I am so bored of this one.

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Groupthink

Looking at the unutterable shambles surrounding Manston airport, I once again found myself wondering - how on earth did this happen?

One possible explanation is the all-too-common phenomenon of groupthink, which has been described as "collective optimism and collective avoidance".

The idea was developed in the early 1970s by Irving Janis, who identified three causes and eight symptoms of groupthink. See how many you can spot that apply to TDC over the last decade or so:

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At last, Herne Bay gets a mention

Herne Bay residents will be delighted that our Council has finally stirred itself. They will be looking at all the responses from the CCC area, collating them, and presenting Canterbury's considered opinion.

Hopefully, this will mean that the views of Herne Bay residents will, in effect, be presented twice - firstly in TDC's analysis of the responses, and secondly when reiterated by Canterbury.

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Public consultation starts on Manston's night flying proposal

Runs until Friday 2 March 2012

Thanet District Council is now asking members of the public for their views on proposals for regular night-time flying at Manston Airport. The proposals were submitted by Infratil, owners of the airport, on 27 October 2011 and included an aircraft noise assessment report and economic assessment, which are technical reports explaining the implications of the proposal.

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Tit for tat at TDC

Manston is now a political football, and will be kicked around until Infratil take their ball home.

Cllr Bayford, who was Leader of the Council when both of Manston's night flying proposals were received, is now indulging in the time-honoured political tradition of finger-pointing, name-calling and blame-shifting.

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Manston in damage limitation mode

Charles Buchanan doesn't think that the independent report into the effect of development at Manston "challenged" his claims over economic benefit and noise pollution. No, it rubbished them.

Click it to big itCharles Buchanan says "we employ a lot of people in Margate". According to the proposal, 17.1% of the "about 110" staff... 19 people.

Bob Bayford says "the people most motivated to respond are those who have a negative view".  Oh dear, Bob, what's happened to your faith in human nature? Surely you don't believe that people with a positive view (i.e. have fallen for the sales pitch) are all going to be apathetic?

Cllr Bayford continues: "there will be activists going around encouraging people to respond negatively"... Hmmm, I expect there will be airport executives (and maybe councillors?) going round encouraging people to respond positively, too... but that doesn't seem to bother Bob.

I wonder if Bob has tripped into the pre-determination trap.

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The nasty niceties of planning

Manston is nowhere near as simple in planning terms as other airports.

The absence of an overall planning consent and environmental impact assessment mean that there are unique circumstances which significantly change the legal landscape. Manston cannot apply for planning permission for night-flights on their own. They have to apply for planning permission for the whole airport.

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Laura Sandys gets political

Updated on Jan 30, 2012 at 23:42 by HBM

Politics is the worst thing that ever happened to democracy, and I only realised this since getting involved in local community campaigns like this one.

The downsides of night flights - noise and other pollution, environmental destruction, reduced quality of life, worse health, more stress, harder-to-teach kids, etc. etc. - are all straightforward facts, and as such are strictly non-political.

The advertised upside of night flights - that they will allow the airport to achieve its master plan and the forecast jobs - is more a matter of belief, trust or interpretation, and as such is likely to coloured by the political colour of your mind/heart.

It's disheartening when political spin and point-scoring produce more heat than light, warming the hearts of political supporters without showing a way forward. (This criticism is emphatically not levelled at Laura alone, not by any means - they're all at it, most of the time, usually when there are better things to be doing.)

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Olympic meddling

Update on those 44 Olympic night flights - Charles Buchanan accepts the reality of supply and demand! Let's see how much demand there is for Manston...

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Regional airports prepare for Olympic flight rush

Hundreds of flights will be allowed to take off and land at Kent's airports - including Manston - every day during this summer's Olympics. Manston, Lydd and Rochester have been asked to take a share of the 500,000 international visitors expected during the Games.

In total, the airports will have to accept up to around 370 flights a day, as all three will be regulated between 21 July and 15 August to prevent overcrowding at Heathrow.

Manston could operate round the clock and could accommodate a maximum of 192 arrivals and departures every day, of which 44 could be at night - however, Charles Buchanan, chief executive of airport owners Infratil, stressed:

"That is a maximum figure - what transpires will clearly be a case of supply and demand"

Kent Messenger Thanet

Knight vision

I wonder if Sir Roger Gale MP understands aviation. He says that "the new Secretary of State for Transport, Justine Greening, needs to take a long, hard, look at the available and under-used facilities that already exist. That must, of course, include Manston." And then what? What does he think will happen after this purposeful looking?

The top end of the aviation industry is characterised by huge budgets and small margins. The successful players continually examine and re-examine every opportunity the market has to offer. It is a very pure form of market-driven capitalism, and as his ex-Boss once said "You can't buck the market".

The major (and minor) players in the aviation industry have been examining, and then rejecting, Manston for over a decade. In addition, throughout that time, each owner of Manston has been doing their utmost to attract business. Does Sir Roger really think that a thoughtful stare from a Secretary of State is going to transform a history of hard-headed rejections into a future of warm-hearted embraces?

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Study casts doubt on night flight benefits

Plans for night flights at Manston International Airport have been shot down by an independent report. Herne Bay campaigner Phil Rose said:

“This confirms a lot of what the No Night Flights campaign has been saying for the past two years. The original proposal and back-up documents submitted by Infratil were putting a very, very, positive spin on things. They were promising more than the airport could deliver, and they understated the effect night flights would have on the local population.”

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CPRE aren't impressed

Night flights at Manston have been an extremely contentious issue for many Thanet residents. Some believe that allowing the flights will bring economic prosperity to the area, with much needed local employment opportunities. Others believe that it is unlikely that many jobs will be created.

We took the stance some time ago that we did not believe allowing night flights would bring any real economic benefit to the residents of Thanet, and may in fact bring real harm to the area due to the impacts of noise and air pollution.

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Council's consultation details

A step at a time, TDC stumbles towards the consultation. Currently, the Council's website also gives a link to the Manston website that you can use to leave feedback on the proposals. I think this is a grave error of judgement on TDC's part - I think all the public contributions to the public consultation should go direct to TDC.

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Night-time flying policy for Manston Airport

Public consultation to launch Friday 3 February 2012

From 3 February 2012, Thanet District Council will be asking members of the public for their views on proposals for regular night-time flying at Manston Airport. The proposals were submitted by Infratil, owners of the airport, on 27 October 2011 and included an aircraft noise assessment report and economic assessment, which are technical reports explaining the implications of the proposal.

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Report highlights night flights hype

Nights flights will not be the salvation of Manston airport, according to campaigners who say that a report from a leading transport consultancy backs their views.

Community groups say they do not believe allowing the flights would bring any economic benefit to the residents of Thanet, and may in fact bring harm to the area due to the impact of noise and air pollution.

Many also say that if the proposed operations went ahead, they could actually deter people who might be planning to move their businesses to the area or thinking of buying a home there.

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Council breaks its silence

Thanet District Council have created cock-up out of chaos - a half-arsed consultation, then playing put the genie back in the bottle. It would have been so much simpler just to bat Manston's proposals straight back to them, just as the previous administration did, and for exactly the same reasons.

Originally, the consultation was to last 90 days, be carried out by MORI (for example), and cost £50-£80k. Councillors and members alike have been getting twitchy about the cost, and so they've opted to do it in-house, i.e. on the cheap. There's no suggestion that this will produce a better consultation.

Manston have dragged their feet for years over this, to the extent that even the Council has been appeared quite nimble in comparison. Nonetheless, Clive Hart has tried to allay our impatience by acting swiftly. Personally, for an exercise of this importance, I would rather he did it right than did it soon.

Having just realised that the S106 agreement means that Manston can proceed with whatever night flight policy they like, TDC have decided to wait and see what effect the night flights will have. Erm, quite apart from what their native common sense should be telling them, TDC have now commissioned two independent reports, both of which conclude that the costs of night flights outweigh the benefits.

They are also waiting to see if night flights would result in an "intensification or change of operation" at the airport. Hmmm... tricky one. Currently: 16 hours a day, with scheduled night flights forbidden. Proposed: 24 hours a day, with no limit on night flights. You know what - I think there will be a difference.

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Airport and Council to break silence

Charles Buchanan, CEO of Manston airport, has had the newly published Parsons Brinckerhoff report since Thursday. So far, he hasn't made any public comment and has stuck to the line that he is biding his time pending a more considered response.

Translating from the business-speak/PR jargon, I think this means he's been trawling through the report with a fine-toothed comb and a magnifying glass, looking for the good news.

Thanet Disctrict Council have, of course, also had the report since Thursday. They probably would have had at least one draft report before then. (If anyone would care to send me a draft, I would be intrigued to play spot-the-difference.) Similarly, they haven't made any public comment, although Bob Bayford - now settling into his opposition role as heckler-in-chief - has been pressing TDC Leader Clive Hart for "clarification".

The good news is that they will both break cover and go public tomorrow. Apparently. Allegedly.

I'm sure they've both got something to say, and lots of people want to hear it - this is no time to be shy.

Council Report Pans Night Flights Proposal

It's grim reading for Manston, but it could be good news for East Kent - depending on Thanet District Council’s priorities. Yes folks, the Parsons Brinckerhoff report has finally arrived, and you can read, print and download your copy HERE. 

This summary is in handy bite-sized chunks - just click on the "next installment" at the end of each post to work your way through...

Shortly after Manston submitted their most recent night flying proposal last autumn, TDC commissioned independent experts Parsons Brinckerhoff (PB) to look at all the paperwork. Manston’s application was supported by a noise impact report from Bickerdike Allen Partners (BAP), and an economic assessment from York Aviation.

TDC’s brief to PB was:

[p2]  To assess the suitability of the methodology used in the application; To test the assumptions made; To review the Planning situation

I have no idea why they asked for the third point - this is clearly a matter for planning lawyers. PB spend about a third of their report rehashing the history of planning problems and then throw up their hands in resignation and say “ask a expert”:

[p22] It is recommended that Legal Council [sic] Opinion is sought on the question of intensification of use.

Some key findings from the PB report:

• Manston wants night flights for freight.
• If this was a planning application, it would be rejected.
• Having night flights will not generate passenger growth.
• The noise analysis supporting Manston's application is flawed.
• The economic analysis supporting Manston's application is flawed.
• The S106 agreement and the planning status of the airport is a shambles.

Incidentally, if you found this useful, do feel free to pass it on to friends, neighbours and colleagues - just use the "EMAIL THIS" link below.

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Next installment: It’s all about freight

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