Wednesday 4 February 2009

EXTRAORDINARY MEETING TO DISCUSS AIRPORT REQUEST

Thanet district Council press release

An extraordinary meeting of full council is to be held next week (Thursday 12 February) to discuss a request for an interim night-time flying noise policy for 18 months at Kent International Airport.

The request, from airport owners Infratil, who are in discussions with a major European airline that wishes to locate its long haul international aircraft at the airport. This request came into the council last week (Thursday 29 January). If an agreement is reached with the company, it is expected that 747 aircraft will be based at Kent International, with flights likely to start between May and October 2009.

Infratil were asked to do two things to help with the relocation of this company to Manston. The first were some infrastructure improvements, none of which require planning consent. The second is that the company is looking for confirmation that it will be able to operate between 11pm and 11.30pm and also between 6am and 7am. A total of 11 aircraft movements a week is being proposed, with only a portion of these scheduled during these times.

Information provided by Infratil to the council explains that they would undertake to improve noise monitoring and reporting, particularly regarding flights between 11pm and 11.30pm and 6am and 7am.

These aircraft movements would be covered by an 18 month interim night time flying policy, which would be reviewed every six months. This is likely to be succeeded by a comprehensive night time flying policy covering the period 2010 to 2018.

To discuss these proposals, an extraordinary meeting of full council is being arranged for Thursday 12 February at 5.30pm at the council’s offices in Cecil Street, Margate.

Cllr. Roger Latchford, Cabinet Member for Culture and Economy, said: “This application from the airport owners has only just come in and the council is moving quickly to ensure that all members are able to have their say on it. This is an important issue for Thanet and one that residents would expect us to carefully debate and that’s why we’ve scheduled this extraordinary meeting of full council.”

9 comments:

  1. Do all those that oppose it go back for a free meal at the Surin?

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  2. about blood* time, at last a major operator................Hoorray

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  3. It is about time the airport was used to its full capacity, hope the council give it there support

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  4. I just wrote a big article on my own blog saying much the same as the last two comments and my network dropped out and I lost it grrrrrrrrr blooming pooters be nice for the council to allow for flexability for potential users. I know there must be lots of opposition to night flights but 11 till 11:30 and 6 till 7 are hardly worth a mention. My bin men collect at 6am and pubs dont close till early hours.

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  5. don, you've got kids, would you be happy for their nights sleep to be disturned at least 57 times for those that live under the flightpath in 2008? And for the airport to ask for more?

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  6. More than happy! Lets use Manston for its true purpose - an airport.

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  7. Don

    You base this on what information?

    Information held elsewhere indicates that all's not well with the documented supporting evidence to be presented to full council.

    Support at any cost Don and others, is that what you are suggeting Don. Knowledge dispels fear Don " Be afraid with this application be very afraid".

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  8. Stargazer I am hearing increasingly concerns from the scientific and engineering community that offshore wind farms contribute considerably to our carbon footprint, both because of the construction to withstand the sea and the high maintenance.

    Richard I am afraid I too think a lot of it is pipe dreams based illusions about what is viable, both technically and economically, this business of going for transport hubs suggests that they either are unaware of the shape of Thanet, or haven’t caught up with the invention of the wheel.

    Bertie have you seen the plans for the Turner? The gallery space looks no bigger than the existing space in the M&S building.

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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.