Manston airport, near Ramsgate in Kent is steeped in history, playing a part in two world wars and acting as an emergency spaceport for Nasa's shuttle programme. However continual poor management of the airport left it struggling financially.
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| Manston's large runway meant it could accommodate the Airbus A380 and was available to NASA as an emergency landing strip for the Space Shuttle. Photo courtesy of Tim Stubbings / Manston Airport |
Despite being in the south east of England, a lack of advertising and a suspect name (Manston, Kent's International Airport, as opposed to something more conventional like London Manston) caused Manston to slip into obscurity.
However, it clearly had potential. Manston was an important hub for cargo transport as well as boasting daily flights with KLM to Amsterdam, linking Thanet, via Amsterdam to the world. It also sits phenomenally close to HS1, the fastest railway in the UK, which offers an express route from east Kent into central London. Some sort of link up with other forms of transport could have made the airport a convenient alternative for millions of Londoners and helped solve the crisis of air traffic overcrowding over the south east of Britain.
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| Manston Airport, Branded Badly |
Then came Ann Gloag, a cut-throat Scottish business tycoon who made her millions through Stagecoach. Many welcomed her intervention when she bought the Airport for £1 promising to turn it around, delivering a profit within two years.
It never happened. Shady meetings with with Thanet District councillors and assurances over housebuilding proved too tempting for Gloag. She announced the airport was to be shut to make way for a "Garden City". Netting Gloag up to £150 million.
Upon news of the shut down, American firm River Oak offered £7 million to buy the Airport and keep it running, Gloag rejected the offer which would have left her in profit and keep open a vital asset for the people of Thanet. This rejection show she clearly had no intention of running the airport, just using the suggestion of turning it around as the pretence for a great £1 land grab.
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| Ann Gloag, wants to turn Manston into a housing estate as a legacy for her children and grandchildren, in doing so denying the same thing to hundreds of businesses affected. |
The shut down has destroyed links between Thanet and the wider world and will hurt the local economy. Housing estates are two a penny, airports with the support of the local community in the south east of England are pretty hard to come by.
Please help stop this land grab and asset strip and force Thanet District Council to order a compulsory purchase of the airport.
Click here and sign the petition to Save Manston Airport.
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20 comments:
Well said, Sammy. Actually, there was a time when the airport was known as London Manston but it got changed to Kent International. Thank you for this blog. Apart from our two energetic MPs, nobody seems to be listening or acting and this airport with so much potential seems to be disappearing.
Thanks Anthony, I've used Manston twice and it was one of the most peasant, efficient and friendly airports I've ever been to. If it shuts for good it will be a national tragedy.
"and was used as an emergency landing strip for the Space Shuttle"
well, not used, but was allegedly available..
thanks for the post anonymous, you're quite right, a slip of the typewriter, I will fix it now
THANK YOU so much for highlighting this. Manston was an airport where Concorde could land because it had such a long runway.
I think it should be a cpo on it sold or lease to river oak and money made put into Margate dream land
This is madness!!! The south East needs an Airport, Heathrow and Gatwick are full to capacity , forget Boris Island, Lydd is way to close to Dungerness NUCLEAR power station , use Manston for at least the Cargo and small aircraft, and why not KLM to Amsterdam the fabulous hub of the world. Thanet needs this, the whole of the South East needs this Airport #savemanston thanks Sammy
Dear Dr Webber,
Thanks for your fantastic comments, with your permission I'd like to publish your comments as a post of its own so as many people as possible can read them.
Please tell me what you think,
Sammy
Sammy - that would be great - thanls for the Like ! Yes please ! cheers, Beau
In case they are of use to you, I have put web-graphic .png versions of the population & travel-time maps at :
https://www.facebook.com/groups/616428761764523/652394671501265/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/616428761764523/652394924834573/
cheers, Beau
Dr Beau Webber's Comments are now online as an article. http://sammysgenericblog.blogspot.com.es/2014/05/dr-beau-webber-on-why-manston-airport.html
For reasons of search engine optimisation I've taken the comments down as google punishes duplicated content.
Sammy, I too have been supporting the campaign to save the airport. It looks like you've missed off the picture credit for the stock image of Charles Buchanan - it's Tim Stubbings / Manston Airport thanks.
Apologies Tim, I've just given you credit for your photograph. All the best,
Sammy
despite the efforts of the Save Manston Airport fb group, MP Sir Roger Gale and another MP Craig Mackinlay, newly elected in May along with a Council also voted in on the promise of saving our Airport, the current owners of Manston are now showing their planning ideas (film studio to match Pinewood, Olympics size pool, a large lake with a surfer's wave machine + 250 houses) and to promote their lies have now employed an old friend of theirs, a self confessed BENT ex senior police officer and dodgy dealing ex Mayor
I'd love to know where you get off telling outright lies. The owners of the site have released plans for a mixed development, including factory units and leisure amenities. There are some houses in their plans, but there is now way it would be accurate or honest to say that Ann Gloag wants to turn it into a housing estate. If you can't make your case without lying, you don't have much of a case do you?
They don't have a case for a CPO of Manston anyway. The recent review of UK airport capacity put the final nail in that coffin.
The fight to reopen Manston Airport continues. RiverOak are now applying for a Development Consent Order, through H.M. Govt's Planning a Inspectorate, as TDC didn't believe RiverOak had enough money, so wouldn't sign the Indemnity Agreement, which would have started the CPO. It is a slow process, but hopefully a successful one. Watch this space... www.savemanstonairport.org.uk.
Sir Roger Gale is now the only person in any position of responsibility who supports the reopening of Manston. MacKinlay has washed his hands of it. TDC are waiting for an opportune moment to release the Avia report (which states that there is no economic case for aviation at Manston), even KCC are now publically backing redevelopment of the site.
Wonder why Gale is hanging on in there with his buddy Freudmann? (the same Freudmann who was struck off the solicitors roll for over twenty counts of misappropriation of clients money).
Manston will be great again, certainly won't be houses too much buried underground.MOD and Southern Water have opposed any other development that's not aviation as does the local plan!
Having worked there for thirty years, bar two mo0nths, I am absolutely in favour of Manston Airport reopening. Nothing else!!!
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