Representation by Richard G Oliver
- Date submitted
- 8 October 2018
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
Hello. I know you have received a number of representations from people and groups recounting the facts around the detrimental effect an airport of this size at Manston will have on the health & wellbeing of the people and the town of Ramsgate. I would like to add that, having attended a consultation event in Ramsgate and questioned some of the representatives of RSP I am concerned on a number of issues: RSP have no experience of creating or running an airport, or indeed any infrastructure project. The communication regarding night flights has been contradictory. I was told at the consultation event that there would inevitably be night flights, and this is borne out in the application, but was also told that there would be no need for night flights - this is also repeated by the local MP for North Thanet. The viability of the project appears to be based solely on the report carried out by Azimuth Associates, but I'm not entirely sure this was independent. It in turn draws on e.g. the York report, but the writers of that report have stated that their conclusions have been misrepresented by Azimuth. Furthermore all reports carried out in recent years into the viability of Manston as a functioning and profitable airport have concluded that it is highly unlikely to succeed. When RSP's representatives were questioned about their business plan we were given contradictory information, such as one person saying that companies like Amazon would be key customers, while another said that such companies would be completely unsuitable as their logistics model required them to be situated more centrally to densely populated areas. When I asked an RSP representative about the airport design that was presented at the consultation I was told that it should not be considered to be the final version and that anything was subject to change. I now understand that substantial changes have been made to the application documentation, but the town of Ramsgate has not been consulted on these changes, which I would suggest makes the original consultation redundant and suggest that the application should not proceed without an additional consultation period. The key question I have to ask is why should we hand this land over to the only company in the UK (or the world?) that seems to see the airport as viable, in the face of all the evidence to the contrary, when that company has no experience of building or operating such an airport.