Please feel free to rearrange the letters in the last word of that Joe Orton style headline as you see fit.Of course, RAF London Kent Ramsgate Manston International Airport is handy for parking my Lear Jet, and the masses appear to enjoy the odd jaunt to Benidorm from there. I'm not even agin doctor/councillor councillor/doctor types who want to fly their teeny-tiny planes round and round in circles every weekend.
But when you see small children on the streets of Ramsgate holding their hands over their ears as yet another knackered old jumbo flies a few feet over their heads every ten minutes, on what is meant to be the day of rest, their delicate little lungs seared by the carcinogenic hyrdocarbons these things spew out of their exhausts, it's time to say 'enough is enough'. Which is why I have entered a petition on the Number 10 website urging Our Gordon Master to instruct Thanet Council to enter into a proper agreement with the aiport's owners, Infartil.
As soon as I get the details I'll post them here, at which point I expect all true Ramsgatonians to sign up!
18 comments:
As someone who attends church in Ramsgate on Sunday morning I can honestly say that the noise from the plane droning very low over our heads every ten minutes or so makes it very difficult to hear what is being said.
Why not turn Manston into a centre of excellence for renewables? At least we'd be ahead of the curve, aiports are so 20th century. Or is that too forward thinking for our clod-hopping council?
Did Pri(ap)us mind that you've traded him in for a Lear jet?
One's just come in to land 11.40pm on a Sunday night you wouldn't even have to put up with that at Heathrow.
And speaking of renewables there's TDC spouting on about wind farms and getting their mates at Powergen to come and film that ad at Broadstairs. Why didn;t they film it at Ramsgate where the turbines are going to be built? Too many interuptions from TDC subsidised polluting planes flying over that;s why.
I'm sure that the vicar can stop talking for a moment, give you all chance to take it in.
Personally, I quite like the thrill of a great, thrusting jet, flying over (but narrowly missing) my head!
This is one "true Ramsgatonian" that will not be signing. Have you looked at the AIR QUALITY site that you have displayed on your site list, shown on the right of your page? It contradicts your accusation of pollution.
Come on TFB, you know that bloody thing flying around isn't good. Just U-turn and we'll so no more about it.
Apart from anything else, it's getting everyone wound up which, coupled with the smoking ban and Sunday being a traditional day of drink for Ramsgatonians, can only end in riots on King's Street over the Summer.
Well the best news so far is that Lucy Mail's back!
Tony - the air quality site is a very blunt instrument. The monitor for Ramsgate ('Thanet Roadside') is down by the disused Boundary Road public conveniences, which is hardly under the flight path of this thing. It's not even a good place to measure roadside pollution - surely Westwood Cross would be more appropriate? And I'm not sure it would be testing for hydrocarbons either. It certainly doesn't test for noise pollution.
I'm not objecting to the airport, I'm not objecting to regular flights in and out of it, I'm not objecting to teeny-tiny planes. What I am objecting to is the fact that our council has handed Infratil a totally free rein to do what the hell they like, with absolutely no regard to the council tax payers who are affected by it.
The monitor I was looking at was the Thanet Airport one, located at Nethercourt and directly under the flightpath
Yes, that one does test for benzene, you're right. And the levels do appear to be very low.
I'm still not convinced about these testing stations, though. I've been in choking traffic in parts of London, for example, only to find that the nearest monitoring station has regarded the pollution levels to be on a par with a breezy day on the North Downs.
And it still doesn't monitor noise pollution. If there was a proper agreement in place with Infratil, that would be covered.
The airport has a grants fund that local groups can get money from. The cash comes from the fines airlines pay for making late flights. I notice that the new community transport bus was bought using this money so some good comes out of the disruption?
Well I'm a bit hazy on the history, but I'm not sure that Infratil has paid any fines since they took over from the defunct Planestation.
Maybe the bus dates from the Planestation/EUJet era?
Of course it's a good thing that local services are paid for out of airport fines. If only our council would find a pair of spheres and start imposing them!
Jet fuel? No tax, no vat, but plenty of chemicals nebulised into the clear afternoon air or washed into the soil after a light refreshing shower...
No wonder my spuds have gone brown!
Dr Moores claims to feel reassured as he comes in to land or take off reclining in his I assume first class seat that the pilot has done all this training. Well I don't feel very reassured that the pilot's doing all his training over me. That implies that if he crashes into my house rather than shakes Dr Moores' champagne up a bit it's all worth while.
ECR its Walter Mitty can you hear me over...ECR its me Walter - Over. Damn that jet, ECR can you hear me?
Eh? Do what? Eh?
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