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Representation by the Robinson family

Date submitted
22 September 2018
Submitted by
Members of the public/businesses

I am writing to you on behalf of my husband and daughter. We all live directly under the flight path in Beltinge and we are all very concerned about your plans for a cargo airport at Manston. I will list below some of the problems it will cause:

  1. Night Flights - These will upset peoples health and well-being through sleep deprivation, particularly as the aeroplanes you want to use are banned by London (Heathrow) Airport at night because of the noise.
  2. Roads - In the area of Manston Airport, the roads are very narrow and unsuitable for lorries. In the Summer months and bank holidays the roads get very crowded with visitors to the seaside.
  3. Pollution - From both the airport and greatly increased traffic.
  4. Schools - Several in the area will be disturbed by noise from continual flights. One school in Thanet has to stop lessons when an aeroplane flies over as the children cannot hear what the teacher is saying. This is unacceptable!
  5. The Council is going to be building thousands of houses all around Manston which will make it a very high risk accident area. The runway is far too close to some of these houses.
  6. Staffing numbers are very low at straight cargo airports as a high percentage of cargo is carried in the belly-hold of passenger flights, which you are not proposing. These of course fly from Heathrow and East Midlands Airport and there is plenty of capacity as both are increasing their size.
  7. Manston has never made a profit since 1999 when the RAF and USAF moved out. It has since then failed several times as a commercial airport under different owners. Several experts in the field say it will never work.
  8. Our MP Sir Roger Gale tells us there will be no need for scheduled night flights, only emergencies, but there will be lots of charter flights. No cargo airport can operate without night flights, particularly Manston as it is not in a favourable location.
  9. The owners of the site could bring new life to the area with sports facilities, houses, schools and health facilities. They have created thousands of jobs as Discovery Park, in spite of Pfizer moving out.