From Kentonline 18/10/2023
The ongoing High Court legal battle over the future of
Manston Airport has cost those behind the plans to revive it at least £200,000,
it has been revealed.
In addition to the soaring legal bills – and bitter division
on the Isle – plans for the Thanet airfield to reopen as a cargo hub have now
been delayed by four years.
But the team behind the project say despite feeling moments
of “exasperation and annoyance” at the legal challenges put in their way, they
remain confident it could be cleared for take-off, finally, in just a matter of
weeks.
What team the other directors are foreign nationals?
They have also reiterated that investors remain ready,
despite the lengthy delays, to plough in the hundreds of millions of pounds
needed to get the site up and running.
If it clears what must surely be its final legal hurdle, work
on the site could finally begin next year – the 10th anniversary of when the
site saw the shutters pulled down and cease operation.
“You have to just stay confident in the strength of the
case," reflects Tony Freudmann, director of RiverOak Strategic Partners
(RSP), who has become the public face of the airport’s hoped-for revival.
“And the case is overwhelmingly strong.”
So the last 7 sentences were Fraudmann letting off steam, however any investigative journalist worth their salary would have asked just what the Department of Transport paid them the princely sum of £8.5 MILLION for, allegedly this was for "delays". So £200K seems small beer and has left them plenty left over.
But it is far from that to Jenny Dawes. She is the Ramsgate
resident who has led crowdfunding campaigns to battle the plans.
In a saga which has divided the people of Thanet over the
years, she has spearheaded the opposition campaign.
She insists “the re-opening of Manston Airport would result
in irreparable harm to the people, the economy, the natural environment and the
heritage of the towns and villages of east Kent”.
RSP says it will bring jobs and economic vitality to the
whole of east Kent.
Just like the past then? It has never employed more than 140 people
The battle lines are well established.
To briefly recap the current legal battle, the airport’s
plans were considered a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP).
As the name suggests, this applies to big infrastructure projects such as major
road schemes, power plants or airports.
In these relatively few cases, rather than planning
permission being handled by the relevant local council, it is instead ruled
upon by Whitehall.
To allow it to proceed it requires a Development Consent
Order (DCO).
For Manston, this was originally granted in 2020. Enter
Jenny Dawes.
The reworded DCO was issued in September 2022
She was successful in winning a judicial review into the
DCO. In other words, asking for a High Court judge to review the decision taken
by a government body – in this case, the Department of Transport.
In January 2021, she was successful and the DCO was quashed.
It was successful because the SoS failed to provide proof there was a need. Even today he has ignored the Examination result and the conclusions of their own £150K report from Ove Arup
Going back to the drawing board, a new DCO application was
submitted and, again, granted. Ms Dawes challenged it again and an application
for a second judicial review to be held was granted.
However, following a hearing in July, last month it was
confirmed the judicial review bid was being rejected.
If she doesn’t apply then the legal challenge, finally,
grinds to a halt. If she does, the uncertainty will continue for several more
weeks.
While remaining tight-lipped on its hopes, the mood within
RSP is optimistic.
Jenny Dawes, notoriously media-shy, is doing the same. She
has, throughout her three-year campaign, refused to give any media interviews
(including a request from KentOnline for this article).
On her crowdfunding platform, she wrote of the
“disappointing decision” last month, adding last week: “Despite apparent
setbacks, I remain firmly of the view that the government's decision to proceed
with Manston Airport, in the face of expert evidence to the contrary and in the
context of the worsening climate crisis, is nonsensical, and the procedure
followed by the Secretary of State was deeply flawed.”
Friends of Ms Dawes have also expressed increasing concern
about the level of vitriol aimed at her online in any debate over the future of
Manston. As the name linked to trying to stop the plans, she has become a
target. Little wonder, perhaps, she keeps such a low profile.
That concern about the personal attacks is a view shared by
RSP’s Tony Freudmann. He said: “It’s just unpleasant. I get some as well. I
mean, these are just keyboard warriors. This is the world we live in,
unfortunately, isn't it? And if you stick your head above the parapet you have
to expect it these days.”
No evidence has been produced as to the personal attacks on Fraudmann however I suspect it is the truth about his personal business acumen and misappropriations he is talking about.
He agreed with the suggestion that those on both sides of
the debate adopt caution about the sometimes incendiary language used.
Incendiary now that is a laugh even the KOL cannot stop it. Plenty more and far worse available.
Another impact is that all the time money is being spent in the legal system, there remains no movement on the site itself.
No reason why they cannot. They only have to solve the 24 conditions in the DCO
Conditions: please click this link
Mr Freudmann says: “Uncertainty is the worst thing you can
have with a big infrastructure project. There are, and we’ve said this
repeatedly, investors willing to fund this airport project because it's so
obviously wanted.
Not according to over 15 aviation reports written over the last 12 years
“But while there is uncertainty hanging over it, of course
they hold off. They want to do this and are just waiting on us to let them know
when the last bit of uncertainty is gone and they’ll be there with us.”
Those investors have always been kept a tightly guarded
secret.
That's because they don't exist
If the legal wrangle is resolved imminently, the design and
detailed survey work will begin in the new year and take the whole of 2024.
Construction work would then begin in 2025 and take around
two years.
Mr Freudmann adds: “So that probably means we’ll open in
2027, which is four years later than we’d hoped.
The airport’s current investors are picking up that legal
tab.
Currently RSP owe over £31 MILLION to their beneficial owners registered in the secretive country of Panama.
All of which begs the question as to why this saga has been
allowed to drag on?
On one hand, as Jenny Dawes fights for, there is a clear
environmental issue in this era of pressing climate change. On the other, a
project which is promising jobs and industry for an area long denied it.
Tony Freudmann says the government’s planning process has a
lot to answer for.
He explains: “The 2008 Planning Act took decisions on
nationally significant infrastructure projects out of the hands of local
authorities and put them in the hands of central government.
“That was designed to avoid the delays that had taken place
10 years earlier in relation to Terminal 5 at Heathrow. There you had a number
of local authorities battling it out with the owners of Heathrow and it went on
for years and years and it was a disaster.
“So the 2008 Planning Act assumed the government, for
nationally significant infrastructure projects, would produce a national policy
statement. A policy statement in planning terms means a detailed statement of
what they want to happen. So that would apply not just to us but renewables,
roads, railways, everything.
“Well, in the case of aviation, they haven't done it. There
isn't a national policy statement for aviation. There was one produced in 2018,
which related primarily to Heathrow, and there's been nothing since. So nobody
in the aviation business knows where they stand.
“So if you come up with a proposal and you want to go to the
private market to fund it and the government doesn't want to put public money
in, the first thing that the private sector ask is, ‘OK, where's the national
policy statement? Where can we read that the government supports this?’, and
they can't. There isn't one.
“If there was a national policy statement which said, in our
case, a new runway in the South East of England is needed for dedicated air
freight because the UK isn't performing in that field, that would have made a
huge difference.
But there is no need for a cargo up. Current cargo airports can deal with a declining market down 18% already this year. East Midlands is at 29% capacity and Stanstead at 67%
“It would have speeded the process up and is what investors
want to hear. There's loads of private sector investment out there. But they
want certainty.”
And certainty is the one thing the Manston Airport site has
not had for nigh-on 10 years. One way or the other, its future should be
confirmed within weeks.
Bold and pictures are admin's input
