"An update from the Thanet District Council Labour Group on the former Manston Airport site, now Stone Hill Park(SHP).
The Labour Group supports the regeneration plans of the owners of SHP as it offers a much needed employment opportunity for our residents and in particular for our young people. We will seek to influence the plan to create a mixed sustainable development. Such a development eases the pressure on our grade 1 agricultural land and protects greenfield sites."
I think this was bound to happen, mainly because Discovery Park in Sandwich have become the main local employer.
The picture is of Manston between the wars.
The second bit is my own and involves the American real
estate hedge fund that seek to find investors to back building an airfreight
hub at the closed Manston airport site, they put up a post on their website on
26th Feb 2016, over a week ago, with the new feature that you can
comment, see http://www.riveroakinvestments.co.uk/riveroak-investments-update-26-february-2016/
On the same day I left the following comment there:-
“Hi I notice that previous news items on your website don’t
have a comment form, does this mean that comments here form part of the DCO
consultation process, or is it your intention to have comments that will be
published here with future news items?”
Well they haven’t published my comment and presumably
it wasn’t the only one, I had to fill in my contact details and no email has
turned up either, so what are they playing at apart from bad pr.
Here is the link to the post I put up when I left
the comment http://thanetonline.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/manston-airport-dco-cpo-update.html
I guess the really interesting thing will be the
reaction of the other local political groups who seem to be very much against
the Stone Hill Park plans for Manston. To the point that people are starting to
ask if party members have vested interests.
I think there was always going to be a problem using a company like RiverOak, where it is possible to conceal the identity of directors and investors, to front taking UK land from a UK company.
I think there was always going to be a problem using a company like RiverOak, where it is possible to conceal the identity of directors and investors, to front taking UK land from a UK company.
I suspect North & South Thanet Labour are now better united and I understand that Iris is on sick leave
ReplyDeleteMichael I was very pro Manston whilst it was here but now it is gone I will support Stone Hill Park(SHP)The usual Councillor voices are in the mix just a shame they didnt support the airport when it was here. They just jump on what they think will get them re elected rather than what is good for Thanet.
ReplyDeleteDon I was supportive of Manston when it was running and actively engaged in trying to help it become environmentally compliant, particularly that it do the work to gain an EP (Environmental Permit) pursuant to obtaining proper planning permission as an airport rather than running on a S106, which was a constraint to planning for business expansion.
ReplyDeleteI don’t and never have seen an airfreight hub as being a viable solution for Manston, the idea of a hub would mean it being a transport hub for freight lorries, it doesn’t need a diagram to see that Manston is wrongly situated for this.
It is very odd that the most popular local political solution is a non-diversified option which the last 20 years or so have shown is never likely to lead to mass employment, upskilling and the resultant economic benefits to the wider community (not limited to Thanet). Even if an air transport operation of some kind resumed, surely most of the employment will by definition be from outside Thanet? It seems far more likely that a seriously diversified site offers much more economic security in the longer term.
ReplyDeleteWhy so many local politicians are blindly wedded to the air option, beyond not wanting to get on the wrong side of a vociferous minority, is hard to fathom.