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Representation by Special Educational Needs Parents & Carers Against Manston

Date submitted
8 October 2018
Submitted by
Members of the public/businesses

We are a group of parents and carers of children with special educational needs, who live within the Thanet area (mainly Ramsgate) and will therefore be affected by the noise coming from the proposed maximum 83,000 annual flights and 230 daily flights in the Riveroak DCO proposal. We are against the proposal for the following reasons:-

  • An airport that runs a significant number of flights within 1 mile of Ramsgate will create a huge amount of noise and this has actually been recognised in the submission by Riveroak.
  • According to recent KCC figures, Thanet schools and colleges have 1206 children with registered SEN, the highest concentration of children with SEN in Kent. This is forecasted to rise significantly by 2020.
  • As of 2017, over 11% of all children with SEN in state funded schools and colleges, have a diagnosis of autism but this is also rising rapidly.
  • In our group we mainly have children with autism. Autism is a condition that can often mean the person with the condition has sensory processing issues and this can include a very high sensitivity to noise. For example, the humming noise of a fluorescent light can be very distracting. The noise of a hand dryer in a public toilet can be extremely distressing. The noise from regular cargo flights that pass directly above our homes, would be unbearable. According to a 2014 study on the effect of noise on autistic children, the impact would include constant high levels of distress, aggravation of behaviour, agitation, screaming and in extreme cases, epileptic seizures.
  • The level of anxiety resulting from being in such close proximity to such, regular, distressing noise bombardment, would inhibit our children from developing their education and life skills necessary for their future. The 2014 study mentioned above, cites learning impairment, distraction from learning and other tasks, compromised communication with others.
  • The rights of SEN children in the UK, to have education provision that will allow them to have an equal chance to make the best of themselves, is stated within Section 20 Children and Families Act 2014. The noise generated by this airport would inhibit our children to have this for all the reasons stated above.