Representation by Deborah Zaman
- Date submitted
- 8 October 2018
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
I live in a household in the Central Ward of Ramsgate and my daughter goes to school at [Redacted] both of which are under the intended flight path – the flight path of an airport that had firmly closed down when we bought our home. My concerns regarding RSPs application for a DCO to allow the creation of a 24/7 cargo hub are as follows: 1. Ramsgate is perfectly positioned as a destination for tourism, not for transport • In January 2018 Road Haulage Association Chief Executive [Redacted]said “Manston is… a completely unsuitable location as the road network in that part of Kent is not geared up to accommodating hundreds of HGVs.” As reported in The Times and elsewhere • Aviation experts including York Aviation, Altitude, Falcon Consultants and Avia Solutions all conclude that a dedicated freight airport at Manston will not attract enough cargo customers to meet NSIP criteria. Recent social media commentary by a long-standing journalist from Air Cargo News backs up that cargo companies are largely not committed to growth in the UK
The freight hub could HURT not heal Ramsgate’s employment challenges • Residents of Ramsgate have jobs that depend on Ramsgate NOT having a noisy, dirty cargo hub. The latest figures from Visit Thanet (which cover 2015 and are known to have risen since then) state that tourism supports 6,403 jobs across Thanet and creates a further 909 non-tourism related jobs, linked to multiplier spend from tourism. Overall Tourism and tourism related jobs are 17% of all jobs in Thanet. Given that the freight hub run by RSPs front man [Redacted] that failed in 2014 employed just 147 people, it seems predictable that the loss to local jobs would far outweigh any minor job creation.
Night flights • Our neighbours have experienced first-hand flights over their homes and businesses, and can tell you they could see the pilots and read the serial numbers on the holds, such was the proximity. Despite repeated protestations by RSP that they have no interest in scheduled night flights, we know this is semantics. Cargo needs charter flights and charter flights often have to land at night. And the proof is there as plain as day: RSP has applied for a licence for night flights from the CAA (available online). RSP’s plans set out no cap on night ATMs. RSP will welcome QC4 craft at night. This would inflict on tens of thousands of local residents a night flight regime that the Government would not permit at Heathrow. • Many of the children of Ramsgate face significant challenges at school.[Redacted], exec head of the Coastal Academy Trust has publicly said (as reported in the Isle of Thanet Gazette last month) he ‘shudders to think’ of the impact on CCGS children if they are woken repeatedly in the night – an issue that would hurt the children of Ramsgate more than any other proposed airport in the country due to its unusual proximity to the proposed runway.