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Advice to Don Wood

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Enquiry

From
Don Wood
Date advice given
11 July 2017
Enquiry type
Email

I have several concerns re the recent presentations / consultations mainly that when approached about particulates none of your so called experts appeared to know what they were nor how dangerous and what levels fuel is burnt at when air craft are landing and taking off. Nor could the tell anyone the amount of lorries etc burning diesel so the whole air pollution issue both aircraft and ground based is left unanswered and I understand from different locations different answers were given on the issue. Compensation about air pollution because it will be an ongoing issue I myself suffer from respiratory problems am in Margate but people directly under the airpath will suffer far more. Noise pollution levels still not covered and as these jets will be far from new they will be more prone to noise pollution. The fleet mentioned in one article I read about were all in excess of twenty year old planes so not only will the be noisier they will bun more aviation fuel levels of which are around one ton per landing and take off. Particulate levels for diesel are strictly measured and these planes if they are that age will be banned from some airports because of air pollution levels, why are they being allowed to land at Manston surely we in Thanet deserve to be on the best level of pollutants not the worst? are we second class citizens?

Other issues are:

  • Additional presentations were added to the timetable of RSP events, yet when RSP were requested to have an additional event in Ramsgate they refused.
  • Most residents apart from those within the contour map around the airport did not know that a consultation was going to take place. As a result, most residents in Ramsgate who live directly under the flight path and will suffer the most were ignorant of the consultation taking place.
  • Residents of Birchington received personal letters from RSP yet people in Ramsgate and Herne Bay did not.
  • Contradictory advice given during the consultations regarding the need for night flights.

Advice given

In copying your comments to the Applicant and local authority, you have pre-empted my advice.

Local authorities have a special role in the Planning Act 2008 (PA2008) process, which I explain in the content of this email.

The PA2008 places a number of duties on Applicants in respect of Pre-application consultation and all applications for development consent must be accompanied by a ‘Consultation Report’. The Consultation Report is prepared under section 37 of the PA2008 and must give details of:

a) what has been done in compliance with sections 42, 47 and 48 of the PA2008 in relation to an application; b) any relevant responses; and c) the account taken of any relevant responses.

In the Acceptance period (ie the 28 days following the formal submission of an application) the Planning Inspectorate will scrutinise all of the application documents, including the evidence provided in the Consultation Report, applying the statutory tests set out in s55 of the PA2008. By the end of the Acceptance period the Planning Inspectorate (on behalf of the Secretary of State) must decide, in accordance with the tests in s55 of the PA2008, whether or not an application is of a satisfactory standard to be examined.

In reaching the above decision, s55(4) makes explicit that the Planning Inspectorate must have regard to the Consultation Report and any Adequacy of Consultation Representations made by local authority consultees. Adequacy of Consultation Representations are defined by s55(5) of the PA2008 as representations about whether the applicant complied with its duties under sections 42, 47 and 48. They are requested from all relevant local authorities on receipt of an application for development consent.

To that end, in providing your comments to your local authority they may be considered in the Council’s preparation of its Adequacy of Consultation Representation; if an application is submitted to the Planning Inspectorate.

In respect of compensation claims, please refer to extant advice available here: https://infrastructure.planninginspectorate.gov.uk/legislation-and-advice/register-of-advice/?ipcadvice=ca9c9502cf

In respect of night flights, the Planning Inspectorate has access to the same information as the local community and statutory consultees ie the Applicant’s Scoping Report states at paragraph 11.6.10 that “The airport will be operational during the day and may be operational to some extent at night. The noise generated due to this activity may give rise to potentially significant effects”. If night flights are proposed for the airport, the likely significant effects will need to be assessed by the Applicant as part of its EIA and presented in the Environmental Statement.