RiverOak Strategic Partners (RSP) can confirm that its acquisition of Manston Airport from Stone Hill Park completed this evening, Monday 9 July 2019, for a purchase price of £16.5 million.

In light of this development, RSP has submitted an updated Summary of its Case for the Development Consent Order, to the Planning Inspectorate, now that many of the issues relating to the Compulsory Acquisition of the land and, the objections to the proposals made by SHP, have fallen away. The Planning Inspectorate has published this summary on its website and it is also available on the RSP website, on the documents page.

Niall Lawlor, director of RSP, said: “We are delighted that the deal is done. Our specialist team will be on site within days, undertaking some long-overdue additional survey work to help us secure development consent and return Manston to operational use as soon as possible.

“As you will read in the Summary of our Case, we have shaped our plans around delivering a world class air cargo operation that delivers much needed runway capacity, jobs for local people and businesses – and fulfils government policy to make best use of existing runways. We have also committed to avoiding any scheduled night flights (other than in emergency situations and between 6 and 7am), delivering a net gain in the biodiversity of the site (accepted as such by Natural England), making a significant contribution in land and money to Kent County Council’s aspiration for a new link road, retaining important historical airport infrastructure and creating passenger airport facilities to provide an opportunity to boost the local economy through tourism.

“There is much hard work still ahead of us, but we look forward to giving Thanet back its airport and would like to thank all of our supporters for their continued faith in us.”