Sir Tam Dalyell, Laird and former Labour Member of Parliament for Linlithgow and Father of the House, was renowned in the Commons and in his constituency for his fixation with the sinking  Argentine battleship The Belgrano during the Falklands war.

 

I am aware that in the House and in Kent I have also, though less distinguished, become recognised for another single issue – a determination to secure the re-opening of Manston airfield as a working airport. Unlike Sir Tam`s fruitless campaign, however, I believe that my just cause will, in the National interest, be brought to fruition and that in the fullness of time planes will once again fly from Manston airfield. 

 

That cause recently took a significant step forward with the acceptance for examination, by the National Planning Inspectorate, of an application for a development Consent Order on Manston. The PINS, as it is known, has recognised that, as I have been saying since the airport was peremptorily and unnecessarily closed, Manston is a site of national as well as local significance.  That more has already been spent by the RiverOak Strategic Partnership on the preparation of the DCO application than was demanded by the owner of the site as the full and offered asking price gives the lie to those who have sought to suggest that RSP does not have sufficient resources to do the job. That fact that has been recognised by the Leader of Thanet District Council Bob Bayford, and his new Conservative administration of Thanet Council and by TDC`s senior officers, in a submitted Local Plan that has given the breathing space to allow for Manston to be up and flying again in time to meet an urgent national need for post-Brexit runway capacity in the South East.

 

There is now the opportunity for the submission to be properly and thoroughly scrutinised, for those who have criticised the project to have their say, for the true facts relating to environmental impact, business plan and resources to be aired and examined and for a sound judgement to be reached. I hope and expect that in the local and in the national interest that process will be expedited and that work on the complete and necessary refurbishment of the airfield can commence as swiftly as possible.

 

In common with the clear majority of local people voting in recent General, County and Local elections I want to see passenger traffic and General Aviation operating from Manston in the shortest  order practicably achievable.  I recognise, though, that there is a desperate and growing demand for capacity to handle air freight in order to enable the United Kingdom to take advantage of developing markets outside the European Union and that it is that trade that will create the bedrock for a financially successful state-of-the-art Manston Hub and that warrants the many tens of millions of pounds worth in new infrastructure that will be required. That does not, for the record, demand scheduled night flights and although there will always be, as there has been in the past, a need for the flexibility to handle emergency, disaster relief and delayed aircraft I know of nothing in the RSP proposals that will require the `night flying` that remains the stuff of anti-airport fiction.

 

Traditionally much air freight, particularly into a Heathrow that is now bursting at the seams, has been carried as `belly cargo` in passenger aircraft.  As recent interest in sales expressed at the Farnborough Air Show has demonstrated, however, there is now an increasing requirement for dedicated or multi-purpose aircraft designed to carry long-haul perishable and high value materials and products between continents. While air freight represents only a tiny fraction of goods trafficked in terms of volume it represents a very significant and rapidly expanding percentage of goods in terms of value.  UK limited, if our post-Brexit economy is to compete, survive and grow as it must, has to secure its fair share of traffic and business that will otherwise be lost to mainland European airports.

 

With the development of exciting rail as well as road transport links currently under consideration I believe that Manston has the realisable potential to be once again on the front line of service to the United Kingdom and while  that may appear, to some, as an obsession  I believe that it is a justification of a determination to succeed.

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