Night Flights? No thanks!
In a nutshell:
- Email the TDC Night Flights Consultation.
- The first line of your email should make it clear that you are against night flights between 11pm and 7am.
- Use the rest of your email to explain why, if you want to.
- You MUST give your name, full address and post code.
A bit more background:
Thanet District Council has just started a public consultation. The aim is to find out what the public (you) think about Manston’s recent night flying proposal.
This is your chance to make a difference - they cannot ignore a majority result.
The consultation is not question-based, it simply asks for your opinion of the proposals. The analysis of the results will be weighted by post code - the opinions of people who live under the flight path or near the airport will carry more weight.
When TDC are dealing with the replies, they will (presumably) sort them into piles of “For”, “Against” and “Other”.
Make sure that it is immediately obvious to anyone reading your email which pile it should go in - use the first line of your email (or the subject line) to say you are against Manston’s night flying proposal.
You must include your name, address and post code - if you don’t it won’t count.
Do feel free to send a copy of your submission to NoNightFlights@gmail.com - it’s useful for us to see how the consultation’s going, and we’ll put some of the best ones on the website.
Click here to see some of the reasons we're against night flights, and you can add your own thoughts. Please don’t just cut & paste the whole lot into your email - use any that are important to you, and add your own.
Do feel free to pass this on to anyone you know who is against night flights, especially if they live under the flight path.
The next few weeks of consultation, and the run-up to the eventual vote in Council in May, will be eventful - particularly given our legal challenge to the proposals - so do take this opportunity to make sure you keep in touch…
You can get up to date news about the consultation, our legal challenge and news from TDC through our weekly newsletter, and you can get more up to date news through Facebook and Twitter:
Links:
TDC’s website page about the consultation.
Manston’s 2011 Night Flying Proposal
- An example of what a night flying schedule under the new proposals could look like.
- Map showing the recommended flight paths.
- Maps showing the noisiness of the airport in 2010, and the forecast for 2018.
- Maps showing the areas affected by the noise of various aircraft taking off and landing.
The independent report commissioned by TDC that critically assesses Manston’s proposal.
Follow developments and keep in touch:
Consultation Night flights
Reader Comments (27)
All consultations should provide a level playing field for respondents. FREEPOST has been offered in previous consultations.
Also where has this consultation been officially advertised?
Dear Consultee,
I would like to take this opportunity to respectfully advise you that the Sponsor Consultation period for Manston's proposed Establishment of an Instrument Approach Hold will close in 1 week, on the 13 February 2012 . The Sponsor Consultation has been progressing well for 9 weeks now and we are keen to ensure that you have your say in this very important change proposal.
For your convenience I have included the link to the website here which will take you straight to the consultation document. It is important to us that we, in accordance with the consultation process, engage with and obtain a response from statutory consultees and interested stakeholders alike. I do hope that you will be able to provide us with your views by the closing date, so that your response might be included in our formal application .
Consultation document: http://www.manstonairport.com/about-the-airport/planning/airspace-change.html
Regards,
Pedro
Peter Thompson (Pedro)
SATCO
Why has no-one spoken about the flight path changes?
Why does Charles Manston in the Thanet Times on Tuesday say he is barred from regular night-flights and the Olympic schedules at night are VIP OK?
Why didn't anybody who was consulted over the proposed Olympic schedules object to VIP etc night flights?
Why is this community, especially the citizens of Ramsgate served so badly by our District Councillors, whatever their political persuasion?
Why does Laura Sandys MP manage to send a letter on House of Commons stationery to anyone who's ever raised concerns about night flights and our local council hasn't bothered and the consultation closes in 3 weeks?
Why has this whole sorry saga been so contemptuous of the concerns of the residents of Ramsgate and further afield who are and may irrevocably have their lives blighted by NIGHT FLIGHTS?
RSVP
I suggest you contact the Mayor of Ramsgate (and the Leader and CEO of TDC, and the Leader of KCC) direct to find out what, if anything, they've done about the Instrument Approach Hold consultation.
A phone call to TDC might be enough to sort out the lack of a Freepost address for the night flights consultation.
Does NNF have a "readymade" printable both sides of A4 monochrome flyer (PDF?) with Night-Flight Consultation essential points and how and who to write to that be printed off and can be door delivered? For all those people who don't take the local press or have access to the internet etc?
Agreed. Why hasn't the Council organised some public meetings in Ramsgate to ensure that people are informed about the proposals and know exactly how they are supposed to respond. We've got loads of Councillors and many of them were elected on the back of promises that they would fight night-flights. Well, the best way of fighting night-flights is to get the public behind you and the best way of doing that is to get out there amongst them.
The wonder of having a consultation 1. without setting out the facts clearly to everyone first, and 2. without any technical or scientific parameters, is a complete waste of everyone's time and utterly meaningless.
What matters is that effectively the council may permit the construction of a new invisible flyover directly over thousamds of residents in Ramsgate from the sea over the town, for the sole purpose of allowing stinking, dangerous cargo flights.
This proposal definately requires planning permission!
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It says in this government document that a CONSULTATION should be a MINIMUM of, 12 weeks, 12 WEEKS, twelve weeks.............
.......and a lot more which may be of some help to our witless councillors!
http://www.bis.gov.uk/files/file47158.pdf
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IT IS AN AIRPORT !!!
YOU BOUGHT YOUR HOUSE NEXT TO AN AIRPORT = YOU WOULDNT BUY A HOUSE NEXT TO A BAKERS SHOP THEN COMPLAIN ABOUT THE SMELL OF BREAD WOULD YOU ?
These are the middle classes that run local businesses, are in Government etc etc so it isn't really surprising that the Country's in the state it is. As you point out they are also the sort of people who move in near an airport that's been operating for nearly 100 years and then have the cheek to complain about aircraft noise. The only THICK one's are this lot.
P.S. "These are the middle classes that run local businesses." - you mean we run local businesses and, collectively, employ far more people than the airport ever has or ever will.
I have lived right next to Manston airport for 30 years. and purchased my house in full knowledge that there was a working airport close by. Any expansion can and will lead to further job creation and security. Lets face it Thanet isn't exactly brimming with job potential at the moment. and I am guessing that the narrow minded individuals that are dead set against such expansion can't deny that
As for being a narrow-minded individual, I have put up with the airport's activities for the 25 years that I have lived here. It has generated few jobs and certainly nothing like the numbers that have been repeatedly bandied around by the airport operators and various local politicians. I can see no reason to start believing their pie-in-the-sky nonsense now. You can be my guest and swallow their made-up figures if you like, but don't expect me (or anyone else with half a brain) to be fooled this time. The only narrow-minded individuals I see are the ones who think that the airport is essential.
On this matter, your statement that expansion will lead to job creation and security is not correct, so I CAN deny it. All of the evidence shows that expansion at Manston precedes failure. The airport is in the wrong place and the runway is wrongly aligned for it to be a commercial success. It's time to break the cycle of failure and to do something constructive which will create real sustainable employment.
The Council has bent over backwards to help Manston and has given the airpport a much freer rein than most other UK airports. The local press has bent over backwards to help Manston. Most of us have hoped the airport would make a go of it. But it hasn't, and it's so far off achieving the promises in its Master Plan of business levels and jobs that it's clear now that that plan will never be achieved.
Manston is in the wrong place - that's all. All the smart management and the good wishes in the world won't change that. As a successful airport it would be an asset. As a failed airport it's a serious blight on Thanet's future regeneration. It's time for some cold, hard, rational, fact-based thinking about what would be the best thing to do with that superb site. We know from 12 years of trying and failing that an airport is not the best use of the site.
It would be interesting to hear some new facts and insights about Manston's possible future rather than the rather nasty and unsubstantiated threats from Oh Dear who I assume is an employee at the airport. I really don't understand his/her need to make this debate personal and aggressive. I do get bored with being tarred with the "all you lot hate the airport" brush when I have seen no evidence that the majority of people posting here do hate the airport.
My criticism of the airport is that it is consuming resources and Council attention out of all proportion to the 100 jobs it creates and that, in its current failed and uncertain state, it is preventing real regeneration. Investors like certainty, and a failed business of Manston's size right next to a town will keep them away in their droves.
Now your blaming Manston for getting in the way of Thanet's regeneration, now you are having a laugh.
Sadly, it's no laughing matter. The airport has been at the centre of regeneration planning since it was privatised. It has failed to deliver the jobs and prosperity that were envisaged. In the meantime, high tech. firms that wanted to be on a business park, but didn't want to be located next to a cruddy freight depot, went elsewhere. Fortunately, the penny has now dropped and those in authority are looking seriously at plans B, C etc.
It's also obvious that for years the politicians have put all their regeneration eggs in the Manston basket. This is not the airport's fault (although the overinflated job creation dreams that the owners have peddled certainly should carry some blame). However, it means that while some of the less competent politicians have sat back, crossing their fingers that Manston will deliver on its promises, time has ticked on, and not enough attention has been invested in creating jobs elsewhere in Thanet. The result? The golden goose has failed to lay an egg and the rest of the farmyard is years behind where it could have been.
So, yes, I do think that Manston has hindered regeneration in Thanet. And I don't think that it's funny.