Campaigner Jenny Dawes, who is taking the UK Govt to court over the re-opening of Manston Airport, says it’s time for local MPs to stop misleading the public.
Ramsgate resident Jenny Dawes has been spearheading a Judicial Review against planning permission to re-open Manston Airport since 2020. She says its time for local MP’s to be honest about the project which many predict will fail.
Last month Dawes was granted permission to make further arguments against the development in the Court of Appeal. Says Dawes: “There are very valid questions to answer. The appeal has been granted on the grounds of Need for the airport. Reports by aviation experts – and the Govt’s own Planning Inspectors – already concluded that there is no need for the development. The 2019 Govt Examining Authority report concluded that RSP had failed to demonstrate sufficient need for the airport. If the airport is not needed, then the jobs, the economic benefits and the profits will never happen.”
Thanet MPs Roger Gale & Craig Mackinlay: “misleading the electorate”
Dawes, who has crowdfunded her legal challenge in the High Court, continues: “The political promise of prosperity can’t be delivered. Our local MPs are unfairly filling the people of Thanet with false hope. If global aviation experts like Ove Arup – commissioned by the Dept for Transport – agree the airport is not needed, then why are they being ignored?”
“Airport owners Riveroak Strategic Partners (RSP) are not aviation experts. The airport has never worked commercially. It has failed three times and was more profitable as a lorry park than it was in 15 years as an airport. Throwing money at something doesn’t make it more viable. The investment figures being quoted to develop Manston are absurd. No serious investor would touch this.”
Adds Dawes: “Manston Airport closed 10 years ago. Too much time and public money has been wasted on this. RSP had an £8.5 million handout from the Dept for Transport for delays that didn’t materialise to a development that is not needed. It’s time for the Govt to pull the plug. It’s time for MPs Roger Gale and Craig Mackinlay to stop misleading the electorate and start encouraging more realistic and sustainable investment in the area.”
“We’ve already missed a great opportunity for developing the 800 acre Manston site as a garden city with businesses, light industry, schools, doctors and leisure facilities, but that was blocked by our local MPs. As was a proposal to develop the site as an international film studio. Meanwhile, our local green fields, farmland and villages are now being lost to Govt house building quotas.”
For more on Jenny’s campaign against re-opening of Manston Airport visit:
https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/support-judicial-review-of-sec/