Representation by Evelyn Mathews
- Date submitted
- 14 September 2018
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
I am representing myself Evelyn Mathews as I am a resident of Ramsgate, living in Plains of Waterloo one of the areas that will be affected by the proposed airport at Manston. Concerns The health of myself and young family from air quality decline from particulate pollution from aircraft and also additionally increased pollution from road transport around the airport - My son attends a [Redacted] at Quex which is 3.1miles metres away from the proposed airport. Mental health- we live in Georgian Grade II listed on Plains of Waterloo which is mentioned in the report saying "Heritage asset is located within an urban area with a number of existing sources of noise, primarily arising from traffic movements. Audibility of specific background noise or lack of audibility of modern noise do not contribute to significance." We have a road outside the front of the house in which we have a bus route that starts at 6am and ends at midnight, which can in no way be compared to overhead flights of any sort. The noise only affects the front of the house and no noise can be heard in the back rooms where both my children sleep. The impact on our family from overhead continuous noise would have a significant impact on our mental wellbeing. Children's academic achievement - both [Redacted]-where hoping both children will go to are 3.5km from the runway and height of aircraft going over estimated at 209m - when Manston was previously operational SEL readings from the noise monitor recorded levels above 90Db - and there have been significant studies stating airport noise can adversely affect the performance of children learning at school (Clark C. Aircraft Noise Effects on Health: Report Prepared for the UK Airport Commission. Report Number 150427. London: Queen Mary University of London; 2015) Impact on Ramsgate regeneration - Ramsgate became one of Historic Englands first Heritage Zones in 2017, aiming to use towns heritage assets (such as 450 listed sites and 4 conservation areas, Pegwell, Montefiore, Royal Esplanade and Central Harbour) to achieve sustainable economic growth, this has not been mentioned in the developers application and is of significance as is the recent re-development of the arches by Ramsgate Harbour and all the new business that have opened up over the last few years in response to an increase in tourism - Albion Hotel, Falstaff, Little Ships and Archive all will be severely impacted by flights overhead Financial viability of Manston airport - there have been numerous reports (including one which cost us the taxpayer £50,000) from York Aviation, Falcon Consultancy, Avia and Kent county council all stating that Manston will never succeed as an airport. Number of potential flights versus noise assessment - the applicant RSP stated that it is capable of handling 83,000 freight air traffic movements annually, however, bases its noise assessments on 17,100 air traffic movements. They have also based their Environmental Assessment based on 8 flights a night however they have got a noise quota of 3028 QC which is significantly more - Luton airport has 2645 QC points which translates into 7450-night flights annually averaging about 20 per night.