The Leader of Dover District Council, Councillor Paul Watkins, has submitted a response to the informal consultation on behalf of the council, confirming its support for RiverOak’s plans to pursue a Development Consent Order and outlining the reasons for its support of the retention of Manston as an operational airport.

RiverOak would like to dispel the myth that 18 flights a night are planned for Manston Airport under our proposals. The reference, which is being wilfully misused in media interviews, can be found on pages 134-5 of our Environmental Scoping report and relates purely to the accepted methodology for assessing the significance of noise disturbance at night and certainly not to any plans that we have for Manston Airport.

RiverOak investments today (12 July) begins a series of informal consultation events to enable the local community in Thanet and East Kent to find out more about the proposals for Manston Airport and the Development Consent Order process.