Straight from the horse's orifice...

In the interests of even-handedness and fair play, I thought I would publish Manston's statement on the importance of night flights, despite it being crap. Large chunks of this have been regurgitated by the local press.

If you can bring yourself to plough through this litany of self-serving distortions and special pleadings, do please bear a few things in mind:

• The "independent" report was produced by York Aviation, who describe themselves thus: "A specialist firm of air transport consultants providing a complete consultancy service for the airports business, including aviation policy advice, economic impact assessment, air traffic forecasting, and specialist advice on airport capacity assessment and planning."
• The airport already had a ban on regular (i.e. scheduled) night flights when Infratil bought it. The long-standing S106 agreement with Thanet District Council allows for unavoidable and unscheduled late arrivals.
• I repeat: this is what they bought. It said "No Night Flights" on the tin when they picked it off the shelf.
• The thousands of jobs referred to throughout this blurb only exist in the forecasts made in Manston's Master Plan.
• Passenger airlines don't decide which airports to use on the basis of what times of day they can fly. They decide on the basis of whether their planes will be full or not.
• Infratil want to make Manston a 24-hour freight hub, and then sell it.

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Woken in the small hours, 10th July

Thanet District Council's Penny Button Penny.Button@thanet.gov.uk has special responsibility for Manston Airport. Here's what she had to say to one of the many unhappy residents who contacted her:

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Thank you for your recent enquiry regarding an aircraft movement associated with Kent International Airport. The statutory powers available to Thanet District Council to deal with noise exclude aircraft noise, however, we do have a voluntary Town & Country Planning Act S106 agreement with the airport operator which contains some sanctions with regard to aircraft movements.

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Motionless

Updated on Jul 18, 2011 at 15:42 by HBM

Predetermination: valid concern or convenient cover story?

Cock-up or conspiracy? A question that keeps popping into my head whenever I look at the long-standing and slipshod relationship between TDC and Manston. Today's source of wonderment is the aborted motion on night flights at the 14th July TDC Council meeting.

The snippet of Labour press release reproduced below gives one side of the story. Political hot air to one side, it appears that the motion regarding night flights was scotched at the very last minute, rather than at any point in the preceding month or so. Incompetence on the part of officers for accepting an ill-formed or illegal motion? Or what passes for political finesse on the part of the majority party?

I have yet to see the full legal advice (do please send in your copy), but my team of researchers tell me that me that Bevan Brittan's advice was that even debating the motion could be construed as predetermining any possible future application from Manston.

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Manston unmonitored

Like getting blood from a stone, corpuscles from concrete, plasma from paving stones... you get the picture. It can be frustrating for information vampires, thirsting after a few drops of information from TDC. But patience and persistence is rewarded:

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Motion calls for a policy on scheduled night flights

The Thanet Labour group has tabled a resolution over night flights from Manston airport at the district council's next meeting. The motion calls for the council to adopt a policy of not allowing scheduled or planned flights between 11pm and 7am and to rule that any arrivals or departures in an extra hour either side be subject to a fine.  Exceptions to the ban would include "mercy flights" and flights for medical emergencies under Labour's proposals.

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BBC: Biased Broadcast Coverage?

Yesterday saw the official launch of Manston's latest bid to stuff our ears full of planes, round the clock. Charles Buchanan got favourable coverage on BBC TV, and uncritical coverage on BBC Radio Kent. Not everybody is pleased...

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I saw the news today and felt like hitting the idiot who claims 3000 jobs will be created. What about the thousands of people who will have interrupted sleep and just do not want this????? I feel so angry and helpless.

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Manston night-flying consultation delayed

Manston airport’s night-time flying consultation has been delayed as airport-operator Infratil has been forced to check its facts. New noise assessments produced independently by the council have led to it asking the airport to review its application and the public consultation has been halted until Infratil reviews its proposal.

Thanet council received an application from Infratil in late September to extend flying hours at Manston and grant permission for a number of night flights for heavy freight planes. However, a draft report investigating the potential noise impact of night-flying prompted councillors to reject Infratil’s plans on Monday.

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Labour's 'no' to flights at night

Clipping: thisiskent

THANET'S Labour group will oppose Manston airport's night-flying application, claiming the promise of jobs is merely an aspiration. All 20 Labour district councillors debated at a meeting last week the pros and cons of airport owner Infratil's proposal for regular flights between 11.30pm and 6am.

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TDC Labour Group reject night flying application

Excellent news from Thanet Labour - they've rejected the ridiculous night flying application from Manston owners Infratil at a Labour Group meeting last night. They cite the "alluded to jobs figures", "quality of life issues for the thousands who would be adversely effected" and the current "section 106 ...needing to be properly enforced and renegotiated".

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Questions for TDC for the consultation

Eleven pointed questions

Here's an economy dozen of the finest, freshest questions to come marching in the door, demanding answers.
QUESTION 1 Would you please ask TDC to put the Schedule 106 currently applicable to Kent International/ Manston Airport up on its website so that the electorate can see what it says?
QUESTION 2 I notice that Infratil advises KIACC of the number of passenger and cargo flights each month...

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Questions, questions

The current owners of Manston Airport want to change the rules that govern night flights. This is a major change in the way the airport is used, so Thanet District Council will be launching a public consultation. Both TDC and Infratil (the airport owners) will probably be doing their best to engineer a "yes" result. Smoke and mirrors, misinformation and partial truths will all play their part.

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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.

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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.

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Who knows how noisy

A mobile noise monitor designed to record the volume of flights from Manston airport is still out of action. The machine, which can be taken to different locations across Thanet, is the only one that can be moved from set locations to monitor the level of disturbance made by planes. However, it is lying unused because there are problems with data collection and taking the information from it. Thanet council could not say, or declined to say, exactly how long it had been out of use. A spokeswoman would only say it had not been in use “since early this year”.

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Wiggins' routes discovered

A red letter day, dear reader. One of my undercover researchers (codename: Casey) has unearthed a map of the routes agreed between Wiggins and TDC many moons ago. Apparently one of the lead negotiators from the TDC side was Cllr Harrison. These 'people-friendly' routes didn't make it into the Section 106 Agreement due to an oversight by, er, Cllr Harrison. Shame.

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In a nutshell: airport manners

• The Draft Masterplan for KIA is indicative but insubstantial – it needs to be redrafted, and then put out to consultation properly.
• The Section 106 Agreement should reflect the needs of everyone affected by the operation of the airport, not just Infratil and TDC.
• There is absolutely no need or justification for night flights (other than emergency diversions).
• Flight paths should avoid population centres by overflying the sea, or sparsely populated land.
• If overflying towns is unavoidable, the planes could fly higher for longer, and then descend more steeply.
• These ‘people-friendly’ routes should be agreed and implemented before flight volumes increase.
• Infratil must demonstrate that the routes are being adhered to by recording and reporting what the planes actually do, by installing adequate noise and pollution monitoring equipment and ensuring it is used consistently.
• The readings from all the monitoring equipment must be recorded consistently, and the recorded readings must be published frequently and regularly (e.g. on-line).
• Failure to comply with the S106 agreement must be reported and fined. Any decisions not to fine must be explained.

In a nutshell: Manston

Manston a.k.a. Kent International Airport is an ex-RAF base in north-east Kent, just west of Ramsgate. It passed from the RAF to Wiggins, then PlaneStation, owners of EUJet (a budget passenger airline). EUJet went bust, and in August 2005 the administrators sold Manston to Infratil, a New Zealand-based multi-national infrastructure investor.

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Airport Working Party, 19 May 2009

Hours' worth of minutes

Dear reader, this is how some of us frittered our lives. There's plenty to pick over here, all comments welcome. I've added paragraph numbering for ease of reference and some comments (original version on TDC's website HERE). Council Officer in charge of the AWP: Charles Hungwe.

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Night flying fuels fresh Manston airport fight

Clipping: thisiskent

Agreements on night flights cannot be changed until the airport owners make a planning application. An independent group set up to advise on the development of Manston airport has said no to more night flights. Kent International Airport Consultative Committee chairman Paul Twyman told a meeting of Thanet council’s airport working group that while there should be a balance of “economic and environmental interests”, he was against changing current night policy.

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Curved approach flight paths

JFK vs KIA

Through selfless and diligent research I unearth nuggets of pure fact, which I can hurl at half-truths, shattering them into a myriad harmless fiblets.

For instance, from time to time I have heard it said that planes (or more accurately, their pilots) like to have a long straight approach to the runway when landing. Dear reader, this may well be true. I have also heard it said that a long straight approach is a necessity. Dear reader, that is bollocks.

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