6.1 The Manston Airport DCOPresentation
Delivered by Riveroak Strategic Partners Limited
6.2 Stone Hill Park Presentation
Delivered by Stone Hill Park Developers
Minutes:
Riveroak Strategic Partners
(Item 6.1)
Tony Freudmann (Director of River Strategic Partners), Niall Lawlor (Director of River Strategic Partners), Angela Schembri (Senior Town and Country Planning Consultant) and Doctor Sally Dixon (Research Consultant) were in attendance for this item.
1. The Chairman welcomed Riveroak Strategic Partners (RSP) who presented on their proposals for the future of the Manston airport site. The Chairman reminded Members there was no decision being taken and the presentation were for information purposes only. He said that Kent County Council would, in due course, be invited by Thanet District Council to formally comment on the Thanet Local Plan 2017-31.
2. Tony Freudmann said that the Locate in Kent video presented by Mr Dance applied to Manston airport and its future prospects. Tony Freudmann said that in its current state, Manston airport could be “categorised as a long runway with a few pieces of concrete here and there,” most of which were not to regulation standards as previous owners had decided not to invest in the airport’s onsite infrastructure. Slide one of the presentation showed Manston airport at its most developed stage, this included; 20 parking stands for cargo, an expanded facility for passenger aircraft and premises on the northern grass for aviation related business, all of which were employment generative. In its current state, Manston airport was not equipped to cope with additional business demand.
3. Sally Dixon guided Members through the background and economic data that underpinned why Kent and Thanet would prosper from Manston airport.
a) In 2017, Thanet was listed as the poorest Local Authority in Kent, ranked 28th out of 326 districts within Kent and England. Clifftonville West was the 4th most deprived area out of 32,844 areas in England and Margate Central was ranked as the 21st most deprived area.
b) In regards to child poverty, Thanet had the second highest percent of children living in poverty in the South East Region. Newington ward in Ramsgate had 46.8% which was nearly half of all children within that area, living in poverty.
c) Unemployment levels were higher than any other East Kent district, higher than Kent as a whole and the highest within the South East region overall. Thanet’s rate of unemployment was 3.4% compared to the 1.7% for Kent and the 1.9% for Great Britain. When compared to an area such as Sevenoaks, with the unemployment rate at 0.7%, Thanet was considerably higher.
d) For Young Persons aged 18 to 24, the unemployment rate within the whole of the South East was 5.6%. Thanet had less than half the population, aged 16 and over in employment, whereas the South East figure was 61.1% and 57.6% for Great Britain.
4. Sally Dixon spoke about the prospect of job creation based on the forecast for aircraft movement at Manston airport under RPS’s plans and estimated that by 2020 there would be 30,326 jobs. Sally Dixon provided a definition of each category and explained to Members that the figures shown did not include construction jobs as these would not be permanent and would only offer 600-700 jobs for a two year period.
5. Sally Dixon said that a partnership with local education and training providers would be essential to ensure that local people were equipped with the correct skills in order to help them attain the jobs created. RSP were keen to promote engineering and science based subjects and should the Development Consent Order (DCO) application be successful, RSP would continue to work with East Kent College, Canterbury Christ Church and other education and training providers within the county.
6. Sally Dixon said that the demand for airfreight in the South East Region required additional airport capacity. The government, airport commissioners and various other commentators advised RSP that all London airports would be at full capacity in the coming years, with the possibility of Brexit placing greater pressure on the UK to boost trade outside of the European Union (EU). In 2015, the UK missed out on £9.5b due to lack of airport capacity. Such losses accumulated to £1.1m every hour and the South East was estimated to have lost £2b in potential trade annually because of airport capacity.
7. A considerable amount of freight was being trucked to Northern European as freight was unable to land on a runway due to:
a) passenger aircraft taking priority,
b) the aircraft route not being available on scheduled flights; or
c) the cargo size, meaning that it could not be security cleared in the
UK
8. Angela Schembri advised Members that her role was primarily to look at the spatial fit of the plans in terms of the Planning Policy. The series of slides demonstrated how the proposal from RSP would fit within the Planning Policy Framework.
a) The National Planning Policy Framework set out the key elements required to drive and support sustainable economic developments in order to deliver the infrastructure that the country needed. The Planning Policy required Local Authorities to provide strategies for the provision of infrastructure to support strategies for the growth of airports.
b) The Government Aviation Policy Framework recognised that the aviation sector was one of the major contributors to the economy and placed significant emphasis on the UK being one of the best connected countries in the world. In terms of short term priority, it meant working with the aviation industry and stakeholders to make better use of existing runways at all UK airports.
c) Angela Schembri read out two statements that set out Kent County Council’s position on the aviation challenge and Manston airport, highlighting that the County Council would keep an open mind and make decisions based on the viability of the plans and the ability to deliver economic growth and job opportunity.
9. Angela Schembri spoke about the key points from the appeals decision and said that it reinforced the importance of safeguarding airports and making best use of runway capacity. Granting permission for non-aviation uses would undermine the current policy protection afforded to the airport land.
10.Angela Schembri said there were a number of concerns relating to the new Thanet Local Plan 2017-2031 and this included: inadequate evidence; it failed to complete a mandatory test; it failed to take into account the national planning and Government aviation policy on airports; it did not recognise the conclusion of the Inspector’s decision; concern about the emerging Housing Strategy; it did not identify how the emerging Local achieved the objectives of TDC’s Corporate Plan and Economic Growth Strategy; and the plan for Manston airport was not what the local community wanted.
11.Angela Schembri said that Riveroak Strategic Partners proposal for Manston airport would have a catalytic effect of regenerating the local area and could become one of the largest single generators of economic activity in the county.
12.Tony Freudmann said it was more viable to use the space as an airport. In terms of trucking numbers RSP estimated that by 2039 traffic would increase. Once the conditions and requirements attached to the DCO were agreed, the Inspector would have the power to instruct that road improvement work be done.
13.Tony Freudmann said that the parkway station would have to be financially viable and that the volume of passenger footfall would not rationalise the need for it.
14.Tony Freudmann said that Gentex was shown within the documentation for the DCO as a fuel farm with its own separate, discrete access. The East Midlands did not have the potential to absorb all the additional growth that the UK needed in terms of daytime airfreight movement.
Stone Hill Park
(Item 6.2)
Paul Barber (Stone Hill Park Limited), Louise Congdon (Managing Partner, York Aviation) and Nick Alston (GVA Planning Consultant) were in attendance for this item.
1. Paul Barber introduced the Stone Hill Park (SHP) presentation and advised Members that there was a new and enhanced proposal, developed over the past 18 months following a significant amount of time in consultation with the local people, the local authority as well as potential occupants and investors to ensure the scheme was viable. The newly enhanced proposal was developed to ensure future prosperity and lasting economic regeneration for Thanet and East Kent
2. Nick Alston spoke about the context of the proposals; he said that there was a draft submission version of the Local Plan that was going through a number of Cabinet and Committee approvals. The Local Plan proposed that the site be used for a minimum of 2,500 new homes and use the 85,000 square metres for employment and leisure purposes. The final decision that was to be made locally to submit the Local Plan, was going to take place in January 2018 and the submission to Secretary of State for the independent examination would be in March 2018. There would then be a further examination in the summer of 2018 and potential adoption of the scheme by the end of 2018. This would establish the policy position to support Stone Hill Parks proposal.
3. Nick Alston said that there was a number of concerns regarding the Development Consent Order (DCO) application and referred to the following points: that RSPs project did not demonstrate that it was a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP); RSP had not assessed the Air Traffic Movement; RSP were circumventing the 2017 Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Regulations; RSP’s consultation was inadequate due to the flawed evidence ; and concern with RSPs compliance with the Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) legislation and the guidance requirements.
4. Nick Alston said that the third planning work stream was the current application that sought hybrid consent. This was to remain as the live application but a new enhanced proposal would replace the existing one in the early period of 2018.
5. Louise Congdon said that an airfreight hub at Manston would not be a realistic prospect. She said that shippers preferred belly hold over pure freighters because of cost. Government figures showed a considerable decline in pure freighter movements since 2001 and forecasts showed no further growth in freighter aircraft movements across the UK to 2050.
6. SHP looked at previous work for Transport for London and for Freight Transport Association. SHPs forecast was that Manston might re-capture its previous niche perishables and specialist cargo business and could reach 2,000 such movements by 2040 but however regular night flights would be required.
7. Nick Alston said that all evidence within the enhanced master plan firmly indicated that reopening the airport would not be a deliverable proposition. It was entirely appropriate from a planning perspective to repurpose the site where there was development need. The enhanced plan would provide up to 4,000 new homes; job and training opportunities with an advanced/hi-tech manufacturing park that would support 15,00 to 2,000 jobs; an aviation heritage attraction; an East Kent Sports Village with a 50 metre swimming pool, hotel and outdoor sports pitches for visitors and residents; and provide a new country park.
8. Louise Congdon said that freight activity would be dependent on demand and would need to operate during the night period.
9. Nick Alston said that the scheme was fully aligned with the Kent Highways Strategy and extensive work had been carried out with Kent County Council officers to ensure a detailed report. Nick Alston confirmed that it had been tested against the Kent Strategic Transport Model and that ecological surveys, archaeological investigations and noise/air quality modelling had been carried out.
10. Paul Barber said that the Enhanced Plan was reflective of the housing needs in Thanet and SHP was making a contribution in helping Thanet to achieve the Local Plan.
11. Paul Barber said that the team were proud of the Discovery Park accomplishment as they were able to generate a further 2000 jobs on-top of the original proposal. Stone Hill Park would aim to attract every single company and have worked closely with Locate in Kent.