Representation by Vivienne Yankah
- Date submitted
- 6 October 2018
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
Sleepless nights and pollution, these are the main areas of concern I have regarding the Manston airport development proposal.
Two and a half years ago I moved to this beautiful town from London, enjoying the quality of life here, quiet evenings, clean sea air and the wonderful variety of heritage buildings, all of this and more are providing me with a wonderful life. Now it is all threatened with the possible re-opening of Manston airport. If this proposal goes ahead I would have to move out of the area for the sake of my health and sanity. Having lived 59 years in London I have never suffered from living with the noise of planes.
I am living underneath the Ramsgate proposed flight path and the impact of this will be huge. Planes only hundreds of metres above my head, night and day, will cause disturbed nights and days, 24/7. No night cap is proposed on the number of night flights, only an overall noise quota of 3028 QC points a year. This would permit very extensive night flying, well over three times the ‘worst case’ assumptions for night flights used in RSP’s Environmental Assessment (based on 8 flights per night). I will suffer from sleep deprivation, which will then impact hugely on my long term health and quality of life. Official data from Manston's most recent operational period, establishes sound levels in excess of 60dB SEL, but that this would be exceeded with the operator’s Noise Mitigation Plan. This proposes to welcome old QC4 rated ATMs, the level of these will greatly exceed previously recorded noise levels in Ramsgate. This will put Ramsgate and me at serious risk from noise, vibration, pollution and visual disturbance.
The pollution from these planes will cause potential health issues for all of us residents. I am deeply worried about both the personal and environmental effects. Regarding the particulate pollution, PM10 and PM2.5, which is absorbed into our human tissue, the proposal claims ‘will be a very small source of these pollutants’. There is insufficient data to back this. Thanet council currently does not currently monitor PM2.5, so references to it being within limits or not too severe are unfounded. PM10 is being measured at two sites. Currently they are under the annual mean limits but have been on the rise since 2014. I am disturbed by RSP’s claim that there is ‘scientific uncertainty about the health effects of NO2’ , this pollution is classified as a human carcinogen by the World Health Organisation, linked to lung cancer and asthma, amongst others. Road transport is estimated to be responsible for 60% of NO2 emissions. Therefore it is not credible that the additional contribution to air pollution from the proposal, including airport related traffic, will be ‘negligible’. In fact it would counteract plans to tackle current air quality in the UK.
Altogether these factors combine to make Ramsgate a far less attractive town to live in work and visit and impact negatively on much needed regeneration.