Representation by Andrew Hollins
- Date submitted
- 25 September 2018
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
As residents of Ramsgate & interested parties we wish to express our very grave concern over the proposed DCO of the former airport site at Manston. There is no independent evidence to support the future viability of a return of aviation to the Manston site, in fact there is plenty of independent evidence that shows aviation at Manston is not viable, including the Avia report, Falcon report, and the Davis commission, also 16 years of commercial failure with multiple owners who had the means to invest if market forces warranted such investment, but no such investment was needed as it's peninsular location is it's fundamental flaw. The evidence RSP rely on as proof of viability has been conclusively disproved with actual aviation data, this can not be used as evidence as it's a work of fiction fabricated to mislead the reader into thinking there is a business case when there is clearly not.
The secretary of state cannot be expected for this project to succeed as stated as a requirement in the planning act. The man who spearheads this project ([Redacted]) has a long history of aviation failure (including Manston) in making any airport project successful, I'm yet to find he has any credible success at all in his past history, leaving a wake of losses both to investors & communities.
Thanet's largest industry, tourism, would suffer irreparable damage if a 24 hour cargo airport was even tried. Making an already economically deprived area suffer further. The blight caused to the 40,000 residents of Ramsgate would be truly unbearable given the quota count that RSP are asking for. Our fears are with such a high quota count, RSP are basing their business case on accepting night time flying on a mass scale at the cost of residents to make their airport more attractive than their competitors. This would be an environmental disaster, as not only would the residents suffer but Thanet being a peninsular location all cargo would have millions more road miles annually than if cargo was delivered to a more central location. This blatant land grab under the guise of a DCO should not be allowed, our country has enjoyed an almost corruption free past, now we see our local MP apologising to the House for not declaring an interest in this matter after giving this project his undivided support, he and other MP's have refused to listen to the massive amount of factual evidence against the future viability choosing to adopt RSP's disproved evidence of viability instead. RSP's public consultation omitted their plans of a predominately night time flying cargo hub, in fact they assured residents that this would NOT be the case, this has left our community feeling that we have been lied to and the acceptance of RSP's proposal for examination without PINS ensuring RSP go back to the public to explain their exact detrimental intentions leaves us thinking that PINS are a part of this deception. We urge PINS not to bow to political pressure and look at the facts presented to compare actual aviation data against RSP's fiction.......
Yours sincerely Mr Hollins