Business don't like uncertainty

From Cllr Clive Hart - Labour Leader of Thanet District Council.

 

There are suggestions being made by our political opponents that the Thanet Labour policy to protect our local environment has in some way caused the proposed sale of Manston Airport. 

 

Well, to quote Thanet Tory Cllr Simon Moores - "businesses don't like uncertainty". I agree, and Infratil's decision is more likely to be down to the effect of procrastination, indecision and navel gazing by the previous Conservative administration in relation to the airport, where he was part of a dithering Tory Cabinet. The Conservative's finally accepted the revised night-flying proposals from Manston Airport in October 2011 and despite suggesting at a public meeting that the consultation could start before the end of that year, when we took control of the council, we discovered it was not planned to start for months to come, and after that, take several more months to complete at a cost of tens of thousands of pounds of public money.

 

Indeed, had I not taken swift action to initiate a more focused consultation earlier this year, we would almost certainly now be at the start of a long, drawn out and costly Tory planned consultation process as this latest news hits us. And where would we have been then?

 

Fortunately, our more focused consultation process had just ended before this latest news from New Zealand, so all the consultation responses have been received and can now be processed accordingly.

 

Thanet Labour's concern for our local environment is something I am very proud of and an issue the public is increasingly in tune with. I do not believe it had any impact on Infratil's decision. They have chosen to sell off the airport, to use their own terminology, as a 'no regrets' decision, and they list Manston as an underperforming asset alongside another they intend to offload.

 

This weeks news for Manston is not good, but thankfully the council at least is on target to complete our local consultation process.

Thanet District Council Overview and Scrutiny Committee - 30/08/2011

By Cllr David Green - Labour Vice Chair.

 

 

On Tuesday I proposed, and Peter Campbell seconded, that a report, from the Council’s Airport Working Party, on the monitoring of activities at Manston Airport including Night Flights policy be adopted by the Thanet District Council (TDC) Overview and Scrutiny Committee, and forwarded to Cabinet. The committee voted 8 to 7 with all Labour Councillors and Cllr King in favour.

 

“1 (a) The Council adopts a policy of not allowing scheduled, pre-planned or otherwise timetabled flights between the hours of 23:00 and 07:00

(b)  That a period of 1 hour at either end of the flying day be allowed for late/early arriving flights only.

(c)  That a penalty be applied to any flights arriving during the 1 hour periods

(d)  No take-offs will be allowed between 23:00 and 07:00 hours

(e)  A schedule of exceptions to the above will be prepared to include ‘mercy flights’, and flights, medical emergencies, coastguard movements etc.

 

2.    In respect of aspirations to be carried into a successor to the current Section.106 agreement;

(a)   Consideration be given to requesting the Airport owners whoever they may be at any given time to contribute to the cost of a TDC Airport Officer and that requirement is included in a new section 106 Agreement;

(b)   A new Section 106 Agreement is negotiated within 12 months.

 

3.    A further Term of Reference be added to the Airport Working Party; purpose that investigation is undertaken to the relationship between a possible Parkway Station and the Airport and the current need for it.

4.    Quarterly or half yearly reports are received by Thanet District Council on the performance of the Manston International Airport as measured against the section 106 Agreement.

5.    Thanet District Council be recommended to ask the Manston International Airport operator to review the Kent International Airport Consultative Committee (KIACC).”

 

The local Labour Party has been pressing for the issue to be addressed, as it should be, through the Planning system for years now. We argued through the Council’s airport working party and Scrutiny system that clarity over the current policy of no night flights was essential.

 

Thanet District Council, as the local Planning Authority has a clear duty to produce a Local Development Framework, against which local businesses, developers and residents can plan their future in terms of land use and environmental impact.

 

It is clear, that the Council has failed in this duty with regard to the future development of Kent International Airport. The environmental agreement that controls the conditions of use of the airport (section 106) was devised in 2000 and was anticipated as being updated every 3 years. In the intervening years it has served the community well, allowing development of the airport, but protecting residents from the worst environmental impacts. However, the aircraft industry and environmental standards have moved on. A new agreement is required, and the airport owners need a clear guide to what is acceptable.

 

The airport owners have produced a master plan of how they would like the airport to develop. It is aspirational as one would expect, and optimistic with regard to predicted traffic and jobs created. In the absence of planning guidance from the Council, the danger is that the master plan will become mistaken for Council policy.

 

Through inaction, the Council has allowed a myth to develop that all that is required is some minor adjustment to the conditions of the old s106 agreement that will allow the relaxations of environmental control that the master plan requires. As far as night time flying is concerned it is clear from reports commissioned by the airport and separately by the Council, that the environmental impact would be severe. This reinforces the legal opinion obtained on at least two occasions that night time flying represents sufficient intensification of use as to require fresh planning approval.

 

We believe a clear, balanced policy that protects the vulnerable public is required, but will allow future development of the airport allowing competition with other similar airports.

Labour Night Flights Resolution

By Cllr David Green

Thanet District Council, as the local Planning Authority has a clear duty to produce a Local Development Framework, against which local businesses, developers and residents can plan their future in terms of land use and environmental impact.

It is clear, that the Council has failed in this duty with regard to the future development of Kent International Airport. The environmental agreement that controls the conditions of use of the airport (section 106) was devised in 2000 and was anticipated as being updated every 3 years. In the intervening years it has served the community well, allowing development of the airport, but protecting residents from the worst environmental impacts. However, the aircraft industry and environmental standards have moved on. A new agreement is required, and the airport owners need a clear guide to what is acceptable.

The airport owners have produced a master plan of how they would like the airport to develop. It is aspirational as one would expect, and optimistic with regard to predicted traffic and jobs created. In the absence of planning guidance from the Council, the danger is that the master plan will become mistaken for Council policy.

Through inaction, the Council has allowed a myth to develop that all that is required is some minor adjustment to the conditions of the old s106 agreement that will allow the relaxations of environmental control that the master plan requires. As far as night time flying is concerned it is clear from reports commissioned by the airport and separately by the Council, that the environmental impact would be severe. This reinforces the legal opinion obtained on at least two occasions that night time flying represents sufficient intensification of use as to require fresh planning approval.

The local Labour Party has been pressing for the issue to be addressed, as it should be, through the Planning system for years now. We argued through the Council’s airport working party and Scrutiny system that a clear policy of no night flights was the only policy acceptable at Kent International as at so many other airports.

On Tuesday Clive Hart, our leader, and Alan Poole, our deputy leader moved the following resolution to be debated at the next Thanet Council Meeting:

‘The Council adopts a policy of not allowing scheduled, pre-planned or otherwise timetabled flights between the hours of 23:00 and 07:00.  That a period of 1 hour at either end of the flying day be allowed for late/early arriving flights only.  That a penalty be applied to any flights arriving during the 1 hour periods.  No take-offs will be allowed between 23:00 and 07:00 hours and a schedule of exceptions to the above be prepared to include ‘mercy flights’, and flights for medical emergencies, coastguard movements etc’.

Night flights study to be taken with a pinch of salt!

The recent study produced by York Aviation, and paid for by Infratil, is based on an aspirational Airport Master Plan which was also produced by Infratil. It was no doubt designed to influence the local media, Councillors and planners, and is an expression of Infratil's hopes for the future. Master Plans are at best guesses and should be treated with appropriate scepticism.

The Manston Master Plan, published in October 2008, predicts a throughput of 2.2 million passengers and 167,000 tonnes of freight a year by 2018 with employment rising to 3,500. There appears little or no justification for these figures as Airports and Airlines, for their own commercial reasons, tend to exaggerate the number of jobs that will be created by airport expansion: they have shareholders to keep happy.

Currently all Regional Airports are suffering due to the economic down turn and if new runways are ever built at Heathrow, Gatwick or Stansted the future for Manston could be very bleak indeed.

Thanet Labour Deputy Leader Cllr Alan Poole said "Manston is operating nowhere near capacity during the day (07:00 to 23:00) and the introduction of night flights from 23:00 to 07:00 simply cannot be justified. Night flights could bring untold misery to Thanet’s residents. Sadly our local health statistics are already the worst in Kent and sleep deprivation is known to cause heart problems and further reduce life expectancy. The health and quality of life for Thanet’s residents must surely remain paramount considerations".

Thanet Labour Leader Cllr Clive Hart said "In so many ways our relatively poorer district here in Thanet is all too often seen as a very convenient dumping ground by an otherwise prosperous south-east economy and the protection of our local communities and their delicate local environment must therefore be our main priorities. Let's be clear, we - Thanet Labour - most certainly want Manston to succeed and to be prosperous. We certainly want good jobs for local people but we will not be hoodwinked by a study so clearly designed to benefit private interest and run roughshod over the threatened local communities that we represent".

Parkway Folly

By Richard Nicholson

Despite all the evidence being to the contrary the Tories through Kent County Council still insist a “Parkway Station” will be of economic benefit to Thanet. They claim this is needed to make Manston airport a success but the passenger figures do not lie. At best 80,000 passengers have used the airport in any one year, 90% plus come by car or taxi, so approximately 10,000 would come by train equal to 200 a week, less than 30 a day. So assume 15 getting on or off the train. And we are expected to believe this is a good use of public money?

The only way to justify this expenditure would be the closure of Ramsgate Station and even Broadstairs. However this will create several problems, an enormous parking need on green land and more traffic snarl ups especially at peak times.

What we are actually getting is a pie in the sky scheme once again promising huge economic gains, like all the other Tory schemes which are no more than hot air. This neatly distracts residents from the failures we have had to endure over the last eight years. This parkway is not justified nor needed, improve the road system and some minor modifications to Ramsgate station and  Manston airport can be well served.

Night Flights

by Peter Campbell

Labour will support the development of Manston Airport but will always be mindful of the impact on residents and the environment. To this end we will implement a policy of no flights during the hours of 23:00 to 07:00, except emergency landings and humanitarian flights.

We will work with the airport operators to ensure that a newly negotiated 106 agreement is properly adhered to, and also ensure that the council, once again, takes its own responsibility to enforce that agreement.

Labour is always mindful of the need for jobs within our community. However we have simply not been convinced that the economic argument has been made for night flights, particularly when the airport is so underused during the day.