Representation by PATCH - Plotholders Against The Cargo Hub (PATCH - Plotholders Against The Cargo Hub)
- Date submitted
- 5 October 2018
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
Objection on grounds of noise and air pollution
PATCH is a group of allotment plot holders at Chiltern Lane East and Chiltern Lane West. Our plots are the closest allotments to the runway on Thanet - a mere 1.5 kilometres from the end of the runway on the eastern end. As most of us do not possess adequate or indeed any outdoor space at all, our plots allow us to not only grow vegetables and fruit but also to relax outdoors.
NOISE When the airport was still operational we had to endure noise levels (90 db+ were regularly recorded) that rendered concentration and conversation impossible. Regular training flights took place which meant that every few minutes a plane would come in to land, touch and immediately take off again. The noise was unbearable. In an industrial environment levels like this would neither be allowed or tolerated. RSP has used noise contours that are not consistent with previous evidence from Thanet District Council when the airport operated on a much smaller basis . They also appear to contradict CAA noise measurements at Heathrow Airport where no reading at 3.8km from the end of the runway was less than 90db which begs the question as to how come noise levels at St Lawrence (1.6km from end of runway) and central Ramsgate (3.2km from end of runway) can be lower? RSP are proposing to situate noise monitors at the Ramsgate end 6.5km from the runway. This would place it almost 3km out to sea which renders monitoring useless and makes a mockery of the actual noise levels we would suffer under.
POLLUTION Given the prevailing winds which in the case of Ramsgate is west to east, our plots will suffer badly when planes dump unburnt fuel and anti-freeze. This blows straight onto our produce meaning it may no longer be fit for consumption. Similarly particle and NO2 pollution will affect us. RSP claim there will be a low impact of particle pollution (PM10 and PM2.5) but they have not shown how this conclusion has been arrived at. Thanet District Council at present does not monitor PM2.5 and currently there are only two sites in Thanet that measure PM10 which shows that pollution has been on the rise since 2014. A freight hub as proposed by the RSP would greatly exacerbate this rise and has not been accounted for in RSP’s claims. Again RSP tries to minimise health risks when it claims that there is scientific uncertainty about the health effects of NO2). This is disingenuous. NO2 pollution has been linked to the premature deaths of over 23.000 people in the UK every year, with 90% of urban areas experiencing illegal levels of NO2 pollution since 2010.The WHO classifies NO2 as a human carcinogen and is linked to lung cancer, asthma and cardiovascular diseases. In the last few years a small colony of slow worms have appeared on Chilton East Allotments. This is a protected species under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. It would be a real shame if the attendant noise and pollution of the proposed development would have deleterious effects on this population.
In their own application RSP state that ‘significant adverse effects have been identified as being likely as a result of an increase in noise’ for communities in Ramsgate and that ‘in these communities, aircraft noise would increase to the point where there would be a perceived change of quality of life for occupants of buildings or a perceived change in the acoustic character of shared open spaces within these communities’.
Because we value our health and our peace and quiet on our allotments we strongly object to the applicant’s proposal.