Representation by Robert Holden
- Date submitted
- 9 September 2018
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
We own a house in Vale Road, Ramsgate, directly adjacent to the flight path proposed in the DCO application for Manston Airport. We have lived here for the past five years since retiring - we were looking forward to a peaceful retirement in a lovely town.
Ramsgate has a good deal to recommend it and, following some some time in the doldrums, has recently experienced a huge upturn in the tourist trade. There has been much in the way of healthy investment of late, and businesses such as Wetherspoons (which offer employment and contribute to the wealth of the area) are beginning to invest in the town. There are now sporting events here and a thriving arts community; people are beginning to return to Ramsgate, bringing wealth and experience, jobs and opportunities. We have wonderful wildlife sanctuaries and a plethora of stunning listed buildings. It is also hoped that developers might be found to create a marine village on the port, thus providing employment and an important tourist attraction.
The prospect of the proposed airport fills us with horror. The most densely populated area of the town and harbour is under the flight path. The Ramsgate tourist industry will be entirely wiped out by the constant roar of low flying planes, which will be dumping a fine mist of aviation fuel over us all - I fear that this application, should it succeed, will be the death knell of the tourist industry here and, almost certainly, of Ramgate’s chance of regeneration and investment. Our beautiful listed buildings will be shaken and weakened and our wildlife driven away.
It must also be said that we are all ‘in the dark’ regarding the proposed funding for the airport. Our chief concern must be that the investors may prove to be from overseas and may have no interest whatsoever in the area. Any benefits and profits would be spirited away from Ramsgate and the airport would serve only as a source of income for outside investors without one whit of benefit for the area.
We appreciate that, in matters of national importance, someone somewhere will need to suffer for the greater good, but we must view the application from RSP with great suspicion. The use of Manston for an airport is a project which has been repeatedly examined and found wanting. No less than three major independent aviation experts, as well as Kent County Council have found that it is not viable as a commercial airport.
Given that Ramsgate (situated, as it is, on the furthermost peninsula of East Kent) is ill-placed to provide a supportive network of road and rail links to main routes, one cannot see how it could ever be regarded as a competitor to existing and well-organised freight operations in London and the Midlands. This obviously raises the issue of pollution at every level, too. It is hard to see how the constant activity overhead and the estimated scores of additional HGV vehicles in the area could not result in pollution on a huge scale. This seems, in itself, to be directly at odds with the Government’s own policies surrounding the reduction of pollution and harm to the environment,
I feel that the danger, should the DCO be allowed, is that we would be subjected to the misery and inconvenience of a second-rate airport which would destroy our town but could never really be of any great importance at national level.