Representation by Scott Miller
- Date submitted
- 7 October 2018
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
Before Manston closed, when there was a ban on night flights (except for emergency and humanitarian flights) we suffered under occasional flights over our Grade II listed circa 1940s home which lies directly under the flight path. On these occasions every window rattled and the entire house shook, waking my wife, [Redacted] daughter and myself in the middle of the night. On Saturdays and Sundays training flights would circle in a landing pattern over our house, Ramsgate High Street, the Harbour and the Main Sands, making weekends intolerable. The closure of Manston Airport in 2014 finally saved our fragile old home and our sanity.
I was living in New York City on 9-11 and still to this day cannot watch a plane fly overhead without feeling a sense of panic and a knot in the pit of my stomach. To subject anyone to any flights at night in his or her own home is a kind of torture that I cannot even fathom. To call a process without any direct contact with those whose homes lie within the flight path a consultation is laughable, and to allow anyone other than those of us who will be so adversely affected by a decision that will bring ill-health, sleep deprivation, property devaluation and crumbling homes to decide on this would be criminal.
The Coastal area of Kent is one of its greatest assets, and to trade off the huge financial gains that tourism and development can bring for minimal jobs, a greater carbon footprint and driving tourists away from the beach, harbour and high street is incredibly short-sighted and economically irresponsible, especially in light of the regeneration that Turner Contemporary has brought to this area. River Oak's proposal will ruin this area, our homes and our lives, and I hope that you will consider the fate of those of us directly under the flight path in your review.