Representation by Jeremy Scarlett
- Date submitted
- 5 September 2018
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
Manston Airport
Manston airport MUST be reopened for passenger and freight use and as soon as possible – ideally as LONDON MANSTON and turned into significant hub fast, to match, for example, LONDON LUTON.
Services should be designed so that LONDON MANSTON can carry surplus and emergency capacity from major hubs such as GATWICK and HEATHROW in the event that either of those experience difficulties, such as snow (see below, para 5), as well as maintaining its own business.
Road and rail links from Manston to London and Dover are already excellent and there is ample space for developing these further.
Manston is ice/snow free 365 days most years and is less snow/ice troubled than ANY of the UK’s major airports. (This is due to the maritime effect: sea on three sides moderates the local temperature and air flow, so even though it’s the same latitude as Gatwick and Heathrow we hardly ever get a deep frost, it seldom snows and even when it does it rarely settles.) Our two main London airports effectively shutting down after an inch of snow is a national disgrace, especially with an ice-free one within 70 miles!
There has been an airport at Manston since World War 1 (1916 I believe), so nimbyism has NO argument: anyone buying property here knows there’s been an airport here since before living memory, having both civilian and military use. I can remember the Vulcan bombers flying almost directly over our house in Westgate in the early 1970s! I can still hear the sound of A10s in my ears and to think that some people actually want to cover that land with a housing estate is too terrible for polite expression. WE MUST HAVE OUR AIRPORT BACK, BIGGER AND BETTER THAN EVER BEFORE!
Why do people in East Kent, or indeed anywhere in the south-east, have to travel to London, or further, to be able to fly?
Why should people wishing to visit the south-east have to put up with London congestion, London prices, London traffic and general London unpleasantness when there’s a ready-made airport right here?!
If I wish to fly to see my cousins in Hamburg and Berlin I have to travel nearly 100 miles in the wrong direction before I can get on a plane! Ridiculous! What happened to those budget flights to any number of European destinations, from an airport almost within walking distance of our home?!
The available space of the former WWII airfield is more than ample for full scale terminal complexes AND extensive long and short stay car parking.
LONDON MANSTON can be developed with little or no inconvenience to anyone
The local employment and business situations would benefit considerably (an understatement!) from the presence of an active airport.