Representation by Gabriel Holland
- Date submitted
- 12 September 2018
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
Regency Ramsgate Ruined?
Ramsgate is a beautiful regency town set around the only royal harbour in the country. We have around 450 Listed sites and in 2017 became one of historic England's first Heritage Action Zones – thereby recognising the importance of preserving our unique heritage assets.
I live in the one of the 900 listed houses in Ramsgate & my home was designed by Mary Townley one of the first ever female architects and is close to The Grange the home of AGW Pugin – an architect of national importance (Houses of Parliament).
For many years Ramsgate has suffered from social & economic neglect however recently the town has started to see a recognition of it's beautiful heritage (hence the HAZ) and a regeneration by local people has kicked off a burgeoning tourist industry creating much needed jobs – all of which has been reflected in a 20% increase in tourist related employment in Thanet (ref: Visit Kent Survey 2016).
The proposed cargo hub with it's lack of caps on night flights will surely destroy this tourism whilst failing to provide any substantial local employment - an airport with no passengers requires no shops or restaurants to provide jobs.
I love living and working in Ramsgate and am a freelance designer who works from my home.
That home however is directly under the flight path and I know that I will have to consider shutting down or relocating my business if I am unable to make client calls due to the noise of a plane flying approx 240m above my head. I cannot have double glazing as my house is listed and do not want to never be able to open my windows in summer nor enjoy my garden.
I am also an [Redacted] and I am very concerned on the impact of this cargo hub on my health not to mention the sleep disturbance caused by night flights. From studying the application by RSP I believe that their position on night flights is very unsatisfactory with dubious noise modelling and this needs to be fully investigated. RSP also state that Ramsgate is 4km from the runway but in fact the edge of the town is only 1.4km away.
Ramsgate is part of the Isle Of Thanet and the clue is in the name. We are surrounded by water on three sides which means that sound will carry further & louder and we also only essentially have one way out. Our road network is limited (we are 30 miles from nearest motorway) and cannot in my opinion support the amount of lorries that will be required to service the freight companies as well as supply fuel for the planes.
The environmental impact from both the planes and the HGV on our town and population as well as the nearby SSSI sites of Sandwich Bay & Hacklinge Marshes plus the National Nature Reserve at Pegwell Bay must all be examined as well as the impact on important breeding birds with particular reference to our wading bird community.