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I went over to the Marlowe Academy at Ramsgate yesterday afternoon as there was a meeting to advise the public on how far they had got in trying to save Manston as an airport and take questions from the auidience.
It was pretty well attended and supported and was from 3pm to 6. It more or less finished just before 5.30.
Save Manston Airport has good strong cross-party support, but (to me) the odd thing is that the Labour leader of Thanet DC supports Manston, but doesn't support night-flights.
There was a lot of discussion on night-flights and it was explained that it doesn't mean that flights will go on all night long, but airlines must be given the flexilbilty, or they simply won't come; almost everyone in the audience supported another referendum on night-flights and re-educating the residents around there of what is really meant by night-flights.
Thanet District Council have not yet completed their Local Development Plan/Framework and it seems to me that this may be where they have the most chance - if it is written into their Plan that Manston MUST stay an airport, then Anne Gloag cannot make millions from housing. I think they may need to speed that up though.
The group is trying to do a CPO, but need a partner invester and the one who seems to be the likely partner, at the moment, is River Oak who have expressed strong support and a willingness to work together.
A Manston Airport Viability Study has been undertaken, but not yet completed; when it is, it will help the CPO process and gain support.
KCC's Paul Carter has now come out in total support and will help where he can - once that Viability Study is complete and of course shows that it can be a success.
There are already meetings going on with various organisations to determine whether they will come (in some cases, come back) to Manston when it is back open. These include a centre for aircraft break-up/recycling, aircraft engineering centre, pilot training, improving and increasing freight flights and talking to commercial airlines, but again, any airline will need that flexibility of night-flights.
No application for dismantling the airport buildings/airfield runway has been received, so it can't be broken up, but all this work must be done as expeditiously as possible, as all airports needs maintenance, so it could deteriorate quite quickly if left as it is.
All power to their elbow.
Roger