Representation by Nelson Crescent Residents Association (Nelson Crescent Residents Association)
- Date submitted
- 2 October 2018
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
The Residents of Nelson Crescent, Prospect Terrace, Paragon and Sion Hill, who all live on the seafront, are most concerned about heavy planes flying over their houses, many grade 2 listed, and especially night flights and wish to lodge our opposition to the current DCO applied for by RSP at the former Manston Airport site.
We do not believe that RSP have any experience of running a freight hub of the scale proposed. They have repeatedly failed to declare the source of their finances. There are too many fundamental flaws in their proposal - RSP has provided no long-term business plan, just a list of aspirations
No National policy has said the UK needs a freight hub at Manston, in fact the Department for Transport does not advocate growth in air freight. Existing airports and East Midlands and Stanstead state they have all the capacity to cope with growth
The geographical remoteness of Thanet which is located on a remote coastal peninsular must be considered. Freight would have to be moved by lorry over roads which are deemed unsuitable for this purpose. Due to well-known government cuts KCC to not have the finance to make the upgrades to the road system which would be necessary, this would severely impact on the LOCAL economy, residents, schools, hospital services.
The influence of noise and air pollution will have an effect on the residents of Ramsgate, especially local schools with young children under the flight path. RSP have given no cap on night flights, in fact they have allowed for extremely high levels of activity based on 8 flights a night. Thus, the quality of sleep and sleep disturbance should be seen as an important heath issue.
RSP state opening Manston as a cargo airport will create thousands of jobs by year 2020 however we believe there will be very few jobs generated for local people because of the way freight is processed using up to date automatic procedures.
We believe that a cargo hub in Ramsgate would make worse the already very fragile economy and affect drastically our need for more tourism. Currently the growth of tourism is well above the national average which, with the introduction of a cargo hub, would be destroyed.
Ramsgate, which boasts 450 listed building in four conservation areas, Pegwell Nature Reserve SSSI, Montefiore, Royal Esplanade and Central Harbour has become one of Historic England's first Heritage Action Zones. Cargo Planes would put Ramsgate at serious risk and a far less attractive town to live, work and visit impacting on much needed regeneration.
There has been no interest from reputable carriers in the four and a half years since Kent International Airport closed. The airport was open as a commercial venture for approximately 20 years and has never made a profit. Expert opinions from independent aviation experts including York Aviation, Falcon Consultancy and Avia Solutions should be taken into consideration by PINS to prove the lack of credibility of creation as propose by RSP of a cargo hub can never be a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project.
In short, should the DCO be awarded by PINS it will be the death of Thanet as we know it.