Representation by Matthew Savidge
- Date submitted
- 16 September 2018
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
I’m a Ramsgate resident and affected by the proposal for a cargo hub airport at Manston because whatever it's fortune, it will ruin the town and community where I live. And destroy the area's prospects which I believe lie in tourism and the attraction of entrepreneurial enterprises which in the last four years since the airport closed, have started to transform the area positively.
The reason I believe that a busy cargo hub airport will have a detrimental effect on Ramsgate is primarily noise and pollution which will turn people and innovative business away from this historic seaside location.
When planes used to fly, the sound was incredibly loud. I'd start off hearing it well in the distance and then as an aircraft passed over I found it deafening to the point where I couldn't understand a conversation, the television or hear music which was happening in the same room as me. Safety is also a concern as the planes fly comically low over Ramsgate. It was an unbelievable sight. When people came to visit, everyone would be taken aback by the sound and sight of an aircraft flying past the window; you could feel it in the walls of the house as well as internally within the body – I like everyone, found it distressing, particularly at night.
Since the airport closed, my partner of 15 years (who I own my house with) was diagnosed with [Redacted] and [Redacted] is a significant symptom which if not managed leads to the condition worsening. Because I've experienced that the noise of planes flying into Manston is impossible to sleep through, not to mention afflictive, this reason ([Redacted] health) terrifies me most of all about the proposal for a cargo hub at Manston because plans include a large number of night flights throughout the night which will lead to sleep deprivation.
Finally, I run a design studio which I've moved from London to Ramsgate and my work requires high levels of concentration which would be disturbed with planes regularly flying only a couple of meters overhead. In the last year, I've developed the business to a point where it needs to grow, but with the threat of a cargo hub at Manston airport, I'm not currently able to offer employment because if plans for the airport progress we will relocate away from Thanet.
Matt Savidge Ramsgate