Sunday, 17 August 2008

Infratill v Gateway

I have just received the letter from Infratill the operator of Manston Airport to TDC planning about the China Gateway, sorry about the quality the planning department really needs to do something about its scanner.

They have various concerns the most important being that there just isn’t sufficient road infrastructure to cope with both the expansion of the airport and a large industrial and distribution centre.

China Gateway has over 4,000 car parking spaces and 566 HGV parking spaces so they obviously expect considerable extra traffic, the airport has capacity for 400,000 tonnes of freight and 1,000,000 passengers per year, they will have to invent a new word gridlock doesn’t get anywhere near it.

Essentially we are back to the problem of an ill-conceived development in the wrong place, which is being rushed through planning before there are plans that are anything close to a viable development.

Surely it would be better to tell the developer to go away and prepare plans that address the basic requirements for the site.

It makes a mockery of the planning committee to ask them to approve plans that everyone knows are totally unworkable and means that they will never get the opportunity to decide on realistic plans.

Does anyone know why it is coming before planning before the plans are in any sense ready?

The picture is of Manston before WW2
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2 comments:

  1. AnonymousAugust 17, 2008 3:44 pm

    Why is it coming before planning before it's ready? Before the plans have been submitted for the drainage system? Before Kent Highways have accepted plans for the road improvements required etc. etc.?

    A good question, Michael. The only conclusion can be that the planning department is under pressure to get this scheme approved before the Autumn so work can start. Oh, no, it can't start until the archaeological survey is done, a footpath diverted and the other many pages of conditions complied with. Assuming the committee accept the many pages of conditions rightly included, I cannot see work commencing before next year as so many things have to be done before any building operations can start.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousAugust 19, 2008 7:32 am

    More importantly why is it going before planning "pre-approved"? What's that about? Where did that instruction come from?

    ReplyDelete

Comments, since I started writing this blog in 2007 the way the internet works has changed a lot, comments and dialogue here were once viable in an open and anonymous sense. Now if you comment here I will only allow the comment if it seems to make sense and be related to what the post is about. I link the majority of my posts to the main local Facebook groups and to my Facebook account, “Michael Child” I guess the main Ramsgate Facebook group is We Love Ramsgate. For the most part the comments and dialogue related to the posts here goes on there. As for the rest of it, well this blog handles images better than Facebook, which is why I don’t post directly to my Facebook account, although if I take a lot of photos I am so lazy that I paste them directly from my camera card to my bookshop website and put a link on this blog.