Representation by Keith Owen
- Date submitted
- 4 October 2018
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
I would like to register as an ‘interested person’, and object to the RSP DCO application on the grounds that the health risks far outweigh any perceived benefit from opening a cargo hub at Manston.
I live in the wonderful town of Ramsgate, which, as well as having many ‘listed’ Regency and Victorian houses (in all, there are 900 listed buildings in the town with more than 200 in the vicinity of the harbour), is unusual as it located at the end of an airport runway. RSP’s proposal to re-open Manston Airport will mean that 40,000 people in Ramsgate, alone, will be exposed to excessive noise and air pollution, and those living in listed buildings will be hit hardest as they are not allowed to install double glazing.
In the Government’s National Policy Statement of 2018, it was stated that any proposals to airport expansion should be judged on their individual merits, including potential negative effects. Therefore, adverse effect on the health of residents of Ramsgate needs to be given full weight against the claimed economic benefits of the proposed development.
RSP’s projections of the airfreight market are seriously flawed. In fact, the number of air cargo movements fell by approximately 50% between 2000 and 2106 (108,000 vrs 52,000), and in 2017 the Department of Transport’s forecast to the year 2050 was that airfreight will remain flat at 2016 levels. Therefore there is no need for a cargo hub, and any custom RSP obtain will either be from enticing freight flights away from other airports (for example with night flights) or replacing freight shipped in the belly-hold of passenger flights with dedicated cargo flights.
Air pollution from aircraft (primarily fine particles of <2.5 µm and nitrogen dioxide) are known to cause adverse effects on the lungs, while noise and sleep disturbance is known to cause an increase in blood pressure (hypertension), with resultant adverse cardiovascular effects. Indeed, a scientific paper emanating from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has claimed that 16,000 people die annually as a result of pollution and noise from aircraft, with the causes of death primarily being COPD, lung cancer, stroke and ischaemic heart disease. In another recent study, scientists found that the incidence of respiratory diseases (like asthma and COPD) and cardiac problems were on average, 17% and 9% higher among those living within 6.2 miles of an airport compared to the population at large. These are just a two examples of the many studies detailing the adverse effects of pollution on the physical health of people living near an airport.
Re-opening the airport would also have a detrimental effect on the mental health of both the young and old. There are four schools in Ramsgate which are situated under the flight path in a line 1.8 to 3.5 km from the airport. Planes fly over these schools at altitudes between 115 to 215m. These schools house approximately 2250 pupils, and teachers at one of these schools have described how detrimental this was to the education of their pupils when the airport was previously open. It is not just the fact that they have to stop talking as planes fly over due to the noise, it is then getting the pupils to settle down and concentrate afterward. This is a common issue with noise in such circumstances and there are numerous scientific publications suggesting that aircraft noise adversely affects children´s cognitive development. Such adverse effects are not confined to children, and as recently as last month, a paper was published which concluded that polluted air can cause everyone to have a reduced level of education by one year, and for those with low education, the loss may be a few years of education. Another recent paper reported that air pollution is estimated to have caused 60,000 cases of dementia in the UK. Those living in areas with the highest 20 per cent of levels of the common pollutants from planes, that is nitrogen dioxide and <2.5 µm particulates, had increased dementia risks of 40 and 26% respectively.
In conclusion, the risk to the health of the population in the vicinity of the former airport far outweighs any benefit (or lack of) from opening a dedicated cargo hub at Manston.