I went along to tonight's lecture given by Matt Clarke, Chief Executive, of Kent International airport.
It was refreshing to hear what the future holds for Manston uninterrupted by the usual hysteria and delivered by someone who knows what he’s talking about which is not something you will find on the pages of a blog (I know).
A brief glance at the companies portfolio would indicate that Infratil, are expert in running airports and reassuringly have long term sustainable plans, I just find it a pity that in the main the audience were made up of people my age and older.
Anyway if you’d like to see what future they envisage then please click on this link and scan through their master plan.
PS One point that lodged in my mind was reference to the fact that EU Jet carried 402,000 in nine months of trading and they clearly didn't know what doing whereas Infratil do.
'hysteria and delivered by someone who knows what he’s talking about which is not something you will find on the pages of a blog (I know)'
ReplyDeleteSo Mr Tony do you live 250 feet under the direct flight path??? No? Well I think in defense of ECR you have no say on the matter unless you are directly affected.
And yes yes yes yes blah blah we moved here and knew there was a dormant airport on our chimney pot!!! but does it make it right to turn a country lane into a highway just because it can carry cars?
The tranquility of 20.000+ lives and the hopes of a town already blighted by so many other issues are now at the mercy of how busy Manston gets, its not hysteria its a real issue, the noise is in credible and not a word of a lie I physically wince with each aircraft pass listening out for engine note change just in case of a problem. (Made worse recently I must admit).
I know it will take time for an airport the size of Manston to build up but all I want at the end of a hard days work is to have a rest in my garden/house in peace as do most of the other 20.000 people affected.
Its easy to egg something on when it does not affect your quality of life and one simple accident over Ramsgate would destroy the airport overnight although I agree the chances are slim but not 0%.
9:50 "in defense of ECR" excuse me? whats that about did I mention hysteria oops, so I did.
ReplyDeleteI was talking to someone who lived on Nethercourt, for years back in the days when the RAF had it, with no pressure they mentioned that they got used to it.
I often worked in London and am aware of aircraft noise constantly yet their several million who just get on with it.
Towns aren't cemetery s so where there's life there will be noise.
It's not a question of egging something on, Infratil have a business and they should be able to develop it.
Since you bring up ECR just tell me how the great man got to Canada, I'll take a long shot and guess that he flew, did give a toss for those on his flight path did he b#ll#cks! and who'd expect him to be bothered we live in a consumer society pollution is a part of the cost.
Apart from ECR and Smeg these are about the only two people I've corresponded with who are that bothered.
I'd like to live in the countryside , I'd like to sit in my garden and not here loud music, but its not going to happen in margate or ramsgate or any other town, thats life!
I can understand people getting anxious over this but I am unable to corrulate anti-Manston objectors when the same people fly and blight other people's lives under other flight paths. Regarding safety, I am very seriously more worried about being involved in a bad car accident, something much more likely to happen than having a plane fall down on me.
ReplyDeleteI can understand people getting anxious over this but I am unable to corrulate anti-Manston objectors when the same people fly and blight other people's lives under other flight paths. Regarding safety, I am very seriously more worried about being involved in a bad car accident, something much more likely to happen than having a plane fall down on me.
ReplyDeletetony, you point out that 'eujet we don't know what we ate doing' managed something infratil have not. Seeds of doubt in manstons ability to be a success?
ReplyDeleteMatt is a good orator, but it's a shame the university didn't set up a debate, giving other groups such as airport watch and CPRE an opportunity to put a counter argument. One sided views are pretty pointless. We want debate, matt, kcc, tdc won't have it, proven by their relectance to meet the public in the run up to decembers masterplan reponse time, or by failing to show up on tv.
Tony, I find it quite sad that you are so resigned to having your private space and peace violated by the anti social behaviour of others. You are prepared to put up with people spoiling your enjoyment of your own garden because you seem to believe nothing can be done about it. This is simply not true. Many people take successful action to prevent this sort of behaviour. It's called standing up.Expansion of the air port is an out dated, unrealistic, head in the sand kind of idea.
ReplyDeleteWe are destroying ourselves through our failure to act and our continued belief in polluting and wasteful forms of transport.
We cannot continue to fly all over the globe if we wish to live a decent life in the future. If we don't act to change now, we and our children will be suffering untold agonies in the future.
You may be content to allow it to happen for short term gain. But some of us are not.
Put it this way smeg, I learnt more about the intentions of infratil, last night than I have from reading your website.
ReplyDeleteAny one with a clue, who watched the EU jet operation, would of had a fairly clear idea that it ran a massive risk of failure.
Infratil have a sustainable and sensible plan, and from what I could gather, have spent money on essential infrastucture to ensure that they can offer a good product.
Why don't you smeg set up a public meeting entitled the the entitled "Dismantling the local economy for the benefit of a handful of cranks" and see how popular it is.
Tony the real issue here is that the EA just won’t let them expand in the way they want to. I asked them how they felt about the big car parks that would be needed, their answer below.
ReplyDelete“Hard Standing Developments: The South East is "Water Stressed" and developments which incorporate vast areas of hard standing could inadvertently reduce the effective recharge to the underlying aquifer.”
This all comes back, like china gateway, to KCC and TDC making environmentally unrealistic promises to firms to attract investment at any cost, instead of first looking into the viability and then attracting something that could work in the medium to long term.
Banging away for years violating their 106 agreement is fast coming to an end, they have reached the point now where an environmental impact assessment is mandatory and frankly it’s very likely to spell out the end of the road to further expansion.
Look at CGPs shares now down to 9.5p, this is not the way to treat people with money to invest locally, the honest truth with the new polluter pays legislation, is that an air accident here with a large fuel spillage could cost the airline involved billions.
Tony, those who oppose the airport are cranks? I suppose those who care about the environment are 'swampies' in your eyes?
ReplyDeleteThe blog is not so you can learn of the good infratil do, we concentrate on the bad. Their 'plan' is more like a letter to jim'll fix it. All of the road, rail build - we pay for that. Who benefits? Kiwi pension funds mainly.
The bits that matt is in control of- enticing air operators to manston- he is failing miserably at. Oasis- failed. Mk- gone to Ostend. Ba? Apart from training flights or mercy landings when it's snowing elsewhere, nothing.
Unsustainable. Did matt say that word last night? He was quite happy to use it when coming to the council for a change to the 106 agreement.
Pete- I thought you'd left the country, but then realised you get a nosebleed when attempting crossing the wansunt.
A debate will be set up, all relevant parties invited.. Are you volounteering to speak on behalf of the population who supports the airport?
Another twit suckered in by a smarmy marketing man in a suit. Infratil has lost money hand-over-fist on Manston ever since they took it over. They have failed, miserably to meet their own target for breaking even, and now have no idea when (or if) they will ever make any money from it. Previous plans have come to nothing. So, why would you believe the guff this time around? You'd have to be pretty stupid to fall for it a fifth time, wouldn't you?
ReplyDeleteP.S. EUjet lost money. Lots of it. That's why they went bust,stranding thousands of people overseas. It doesn't matter how many passengers they carried. Anyone can give seats away. Only properly run companies can make money.
I thought all this had died down Manston is here let us make the most of it they recon there is enough oil for another 100 years bye then we will be needing so many planets to keep ourselves we will have colonised the moon mercury and the sun and if as on Michaels blog there is supernatual life maybe we will all be beamed up by then it happens a lot in America's deep south ask Will Smith and the other guy from Men in Black oh I remember his name Tommy Lee Jones he even went inside one of the aliens to retrieve his super blaster gun maybe we can get MIB to explain the master plan for us
ReplyDeleteI notice that they never had the guts to hold the meeting in the Chatham House School gymnasium as Wiggims did a few years back when 300, residents gave them a very hot reception and let our councilors know what they thought of night flying,
ReplyDeleteStargazer.
Stazgazer
ReplyDeleteInfratil are only running a business that was established before they bought it, so why should they front up for some confrontational event just to display guts.
So people object to what I have to say from time to time, should i hold a public meeting to display guts.
The fact is this was, as far as I could tell a public lecture which the public were invited to attend and it was of little surprise to me, that no one expressed any hostility, why would they?
I smell dinosaur poo.
ReplyDeleteMarch 10th:
ReplyDeleteAirport use down by......
Heathrow....9.5%
Gatwick.....14.4%
Stansted....16.2%
Southampton.17.4%
Glasgow.....11.8%
Aberdeen....16%
Yeh. Great time to be developing an airport at Manston.