Oops, sorry. That should have read 'draft master plan'. Ne'er mind. Presumably Infartil, the airport's owners, imagined they could slip this one under the doormat while we were all distracted with China Gateway. But no, you have to get up very early indeed to catch out an Eastcliff, especially as I'm kept awake all night by knackered old jumbos rattling inches above my bonce!The summary is, well, er, loads more knackered old jumbos actually. Just what Ramsgate needs! I haven't got the will or energy to read through all 136 pages, but you can download it from the RAF London Kent Ramsgate Manston International Airport website here.
Or, if you want a laugh, you can watch Simon Jones's report for BBC Southeast Today here. Keep your minces peeled for ancient library footage of MK Airlines jumbos taking off (they no longer use the airport since they hit financial turbulence earlier this year), the weeds growing out of the runway, and the total absence of any hard-hitting questions like 'Won't everyone in Ramsgate go deaf and choke on kerosene fumes if this plan goes ahead?'
15 comments:
The MK airplane was being used all this morning (Wednesday) so that clears that one up - no doubt the wingers will be out to put the dampners on this plan. One day people will embrace change and Thanet may become prosperous. Then what would the airport protesters do beat their sticks somewhere else maybe - would they still run local societies.
Thanks for clearing that up. I guess they must have finally found the MK 747 under a few tons of mothballs!
As for 'embracing change', I'm afraid that makes you sound a bit like a refugee from the 80s. Haven't you heard that airports and planes are yesterday's thing, old chap? If you really wanted to embrace change you'd be fighting for something that has got a future.
Shot yourself in the foot this time ECR, always moaning about the noise from the "knackered old jumbos", yet didn't even realise the plane they showed on TV was flying overhead most of the day.
Good luck to all at Manston, hope it works out well this time.
Er, well, I was up in the village most of the day earning a crust so that I can spend it on the local Thanetian economy.
Which is something lots of people won't be doing should this plan ever, um, take off. Which we all know, of course, it won't. 10,000 jobs predicted on the front page of the Gazunder ten years ago - how many are there today? Five? Ten?
So wish them all the luck in the world, Tony, it ain't going to amount to a hill of proverbials!
At least they are trying, and not just giving up, if it fails then you can say it didn't work, not beforehand. One assumption you made has already been proved wrong,ie: " ancient library footage of MK Airlines jumbos taking off ".
ER. - Used your link to Website http://www.kentinternationalairport-manston.com/AirportServices
but navigated away from the complaints page where it sent me and there in B/W it states airport has 100 workers. Agreed - not 10,000 but a few more than five/ten... Good luck Manston.
Planes again, is it?
How riveting!
The whole of Ramsgate's housing stock blighted in one 136 page document. Nice one.
I look forward to the council spending millions in subsidised double glazing.
I know it’s a bit fuzzy but you may wish to read this
We all know their masterplan is just pie in the sky.
The government gave the go-ahead for expansion at Stanstead today. I'm afraid that's where the future lies.
You might literally find it riveting, Lucy, should great big lumps of aluminium start falling out of the sky, as they have this year at Heathrow, Biggin Hill and Madrid, to name but three.
I must admit on my visits to Ramsgate the plane noise when it is training is a damn nuisance.
But, for the other moaners who complain about the airport being noisy, I believe it was there before most of you lived in the area, and you should have considered this when moving! When speaking to people in the Manston Area they are quite happy with the noise levels they get!!
I am sorry but arguing that we should be 'embracing the future' whilst simultaneously quoting ancient history really isn't going to cut it as an argument.
The airport has only been a commercial airport for the past ten years. Plenty of people were here before that. As for its future I do not know many people who honestly believe that it has one. The only reason the politicians talk it up is because it makes them look as if they are doing something, and because if there is another terminal built there as proposed they might get the contract to carpet it.
I can't believe that the whingers are still at it. After 10 years of failure they are still whingeing that the airport should be expanded. When will they get it? It doesn't matter whether you agree with having an airport there or not. It's a commercial failure and has no prospect of success.
The Master Plan is just pie-in-the-sky nonsense to try to persuade the local authority to abandon the few pitiful restrictions that remain to prevent night-flights. If Infratil haven't managed to attract passenger operators in the last three years, why would you believe they will get a million passengers a year in the next three?
I'm afraid the pro-airport lobby have a lot to answer for. If we'd built almost anything else other than an airport, it would have generated far more jobs than the airport ever has or will. How many more years will these whingers keep irritating us with their proclamations about what is in the best economic interests of Thanet? They've been consistently wrong for ten years, but they still think they know what's best.
well said 6:54.
Once I'd read the document, i went back to the beginning to check if it started "Dear Jim, please would you fix it for me...."
Its like Sim City. Put a new train line there, new dual carriageway here, build a new apron there etc etc. No real mention of where the funding will come from, but I like the line on "invested £30mm over the past 4 years". How much did infratil pay for it?
Every economist, every airline chief understands whats happenig to the airline industry right now. Budget flights are dead. Passenger numbers are retracting. Airlines are burdened with ageing, uneconomical planes that will cost an arm and a leg to replace. Fuel, although markedly cheaper than a couple of months ago is still at the top end of airlines business plan projections.
Unfortunately, the 296 hectares of airport in thanet is run by and encouraged by people and who are blind to these facts.
I wish them well with their masterplan, I'll be interested to see the support or lack of it, and how it pans out for them over the next few years.
Tony - your 12:43 comment mate. Unfortunately, Manston has tried for the last 10 years, and failed miserably - one passenger flight this week after 10 years in private hands is not what you would call a success. If you have the patience for another 10 years, to maybe add another flight a week, some of us think, rightly, that land could be used in a much more effective manner.
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