Representation by Robin Willi
- Date submitted
- 15 September 2018
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
I am the owner of [Redacted] and affected by the potential compulsory acquisition orders in conjunction with the opening of the former Manston airport facilities for cargo and other traffic. The planned and applied for flights for Manston are in no proportion to any previous activity at Manston - or indeed to the UK cargo traffic over the past 20 years. According to data from the CAA, London airports managed 1.87 MM tons of cargo in 2016, representing a mere 1% capacity increase annually over twenty years. At up to 83'000 flights a year, Manston would double all of London's airports cargo capacity immediately - catering for 100 years of cargo flight growth (calculating with 20 tons capacity for an average cargo carrier). Manston and Thanet do not have the manpower, rail or road capacity to double all of Greater London's cargo capacity. Nor is the case proven that further cargo capacity needs to be in the south of the UK - all meaningful cargo growth has come from the North over the past 20 years, as per the CAA data. Noise, pollution, traffic levels would be those of Heathrow, Gatwick, Stanstead and Luton combined - that is the current proposal. The current proposal was put forward by RiverOak Strategic Partners Ltd. Despite written requests to the company's lawyers, no information has been forthcoming about the financial resources of the project developer and the ultimate beneficiaries of the project. It must be noted that half the board of River Oak is made up of active private client bankers and fiduciaries working for Swiss private bank Julius Baer with no previous experience in infrastructure development and not based in the UK. The lack of transparency as to financial resources and beneficiaries and the risk of a 'White Elephant' development is cause of grave concern.