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?

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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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Night flights do not mean jobs, says report

Night flights from Manston Airport will not create the 3,000 jobs promised by operators Infratil, an independent report says. The final document, compiled by specialists Parsons Brinckerhoff Ltd, was submitted to the council's Community Services Manager Madeline Homer on Thursday (19th Jan).

As exclusively revealed by the IoT Gazette on Friday 20th Jan, the report cast doubt on the economic argument for an average eight flights a night and claimed the environmental impact had been understated. The report said that if a night flying ban was to remain, the airport would only be excluded from 9 per cent of the scheduled freight market. It went on:

"Given that Manston Airport currently employs a proportionately large workforce for a small throughput, growth of passengers and freight in the short term may not necessarily lead to a significant employment and hence economic impact.

The report also said the analysis of the noise generated by airport had "resulted in an underestimation of the potential impacts on residents in the area".

The reported also recommended that Infratil's night flight proposal not be treated as a planning application meaning the decision on whether to adopt them could go before a full council.

thisiskent 23rd Jan 2012

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Full details and analysis on this website when the report is made public.

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TDC's update on night-time flying proposal

The findings of an independent assessment of the proposals and technical details for night time flying at Manston Airport have been received by the council.

The final report was submitted to the council’s Community Services Manager, Madeline Homer on Thursday 19 January and was completed by specialists, Parsons Brinckerhoff Ltd.

Before starting any public consultation on the proposals, the council had committed to carry out an independent assessment of the information it received from airport owners Infratil. 

This was so that the council could review the technical detail supplied by the airport and so that we could consider the environmental and economic impacts in the proposal.

A copy of the full report will be available to view from Monday 23 January.

from the TDC website

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As soon as it's available, you'll be able to download your copy from this site.

Soon after that, you'll be able to read our "Readers Digest" summary of the key points and what it means for you.

Clive Hart, night flights and pre-election pledges

Here's a snippet from a recent interview with Clive Hart shortly after he managed to take leadership of the Council from Bob Bayford. The rest of the article, which you can read by clicking the link below, covers a wide range of topics of interest to Margate, Ramsgate and the rest of the Thanet.

This excerpt is about night flights, and is therefore of interest to a lot of North East Kent. I think Clive Hart is being overly cautious about the tricky question of predetermination, which is fine. What I am more concerned about is his apparent inability to deliver the whole of his party when it comes to a vote on night flights.

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KIACC meeting

There will be a "meeting in public" of KIACC (the airport consultative committee) on Friday 21st October. The time has yet to be confirmed, but in will be in the evening, after they've had their "meeting in private", probably starting some time between 6pm and 8pm.

Full details will be posted here as soon as they're made public.

We are expecting Charles Buchanan, Cllr Bob Bayford, Madeline Homer, and a host of other local celebrities!

It is now traditional to wear a red item of clothing if you are against night flights.

TDC has lost control of Manston

At first I thought that might be a surprising, or even shocking, headline. But on reflection, I'm sorry to say it isn't. At all.

TDC have never really chosen to exercise any control; Manston does pretty much whatever it likes; and us poor sods who live under the flight path (especially those who have used Manston's pitiful complaints system) are all too well aware that Manston operates what is technically termed "uncontrolled airspace".

All this relates to the now infamous 5th October "Wakey Wakey Ramsgate" incident. As you will see from their confession, Manston ignored the S106 agreement and flew planes in and out through the night.

If they get their way with their next night flights application, we'll be getting this kind of misery every night. Click HERE to see who to write to, and keep writing to them until the penny drops.

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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:

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