Representation by Anthony Goulden
- Date submitted
- 11 September 2018
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
I live about 1000 metres from the Manston runway. my wife and I moved to Cliffsend four years ago to enjoy our retirement on the south coast. This is a popular area for retiring to and most of us enjoy being in our gardens, going to the harbour for a walk and visiting one of the many restaurants and pubs there, perhaps sitting outside a cafe overlooking the boats in the marina. The noise level in our garden will be unbearable and the thought of trying to enjoy a quiet cup of coffee at the harbour while four engined jets fly above us at less than 300 metres fills me with despair. Manston runway is aligned to pass directly over Ramsgate and the harbour out into the Channel because it was originally built to get fighters up quickly to stop Zeppelins bombing the town. Probably welcome at the time but this alignment will only cause misery now as the majority of flights will land or take off using this route. There is also a sharp right turn option for a percentage of the flights that need to pass west down the Channel. There were two or three a week under the last operators and they only had about 500 ATMs a year. This option passes directly over Cliffsend, Minster and Sandwich and these planes will still be using climb to height power when they pass over my house with unburnt fuel and particulates being expelled from the engines. They will still be low when they pass over Sandwich, home to the Royal St. George golf course, affecting its suitability as a venue for the Open. If this proposed cargo hub is in the national interest then it must surely be weighed against the potential harm it will cause the local population and while the health of us OAPs may not be so important because of our age, there are five schools either directly under the flight path or very close(Christchurch Junior, Chilton Primary, Newington Primary, Chatham & Clarendon Grammar and Priory Infant) where the planes will be at 200 metres or lower as they pass over. Surely their lungs matter and there education must suffer from the noise. The proposal to move the fuel farm to the Jentex site seems dangerous. It is very close to my house and since the airport closure houses have been built close up to it. The large number of tankers transferring fuel into the tanks is a hazard and there has never been the amount of fuel that this proposal will need stored here before. It will be like living close to a bomb.