Manston second legal challenge applied for by campaigners
Ramsgate resident Jenny Dawes has applied for a judicial review (JR)of the decision to allow the Manston airport site to be transformed into a cargo hub. The court has still to decide whether to allow the appeal. The JR would mean the decision in August by the government to allow the scheme would be reassessed by a High Court judge. The airport’s owners, RiverOak Strategic Partners (RSP), had wanted to start preliminary work by Christmas. Ms Dawes, whose legal team has now filed its 1,200-page appeal, said that developing Manston Airport would cause irreparable harm to the people, the environment and even the economy of east Kent. The Development Consent Order (DCO) for the work was originally granted by the government in 2020; it was then quashed in 2021 after a judicial review; it was then approved by government this August; and it now being challenged again. In October 2021 an independent aviation assessor concluded there was no need for a new freight airport at Manston. Ms Dawes crowd-funded £119,000 to pay for the legal costs arising from the 2020 judicial review, and is hoping to generate £50,000 in donations on this occasion.
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Manston Airport: Second legal challenge launched against air freight hub
By Brad Harper bharper@thekmgroup.co.uk
30 September 2022
A campaigner has launched a second bid to ground plans to reopen Manston Airport.
Ramsgate resident Jenny Dawes has applied for a judicial review of the decision to allow the Thanet site to be transformed into a cargo hub.
The move means last month’s decision to green-light the multi-million-pound scheme will be reassessed by a High Court judge.
But bosses from RiverOak Strategic Partners (RSP) hope the review will be dealt with swiftly to pave the way for them to start preliminary work by Christmas.
Ms Dawes, whose legal team filed its 1,200-page appeal yesterday, reasoned: “Developing Manston Airport will cause irreparable harm to the people, environment and the economy of east Kent.”
The government originally granted a Development Consent Order (DCO) – against the recommendation of the Planning Inspectorate – two years ago, which appeared to pave the way for the RSP-owned site to reopen.
But in February last year, it was officially quashed by the High Court, following a judicial review launched by Ms Dawes
Then in October last year, an independent aviation assessor concluded there was no need for a new freight airport at the site.
Despite this, the Department for Transport confirmed in August its DCO had been granted.
If the judge feels the concerns raised by Ms Dawes in her latest appeal have merit, the case could be heard by the High Court.
It would then decide whether to quash the DCO, forcing the Department for Transport to submit another.
Ms Dawes crowd-funded £119,000 to pay for the legal costs arising from the 2020 judicial review, and is hoping to generate £50,000 in donations on this occasion.
She added: “The money we raised last time was used to pay solicitors, barristers, consultants and court costs in what turned out to be a long and complicated case.”
RSP says surveys, detailed master planning and design work are still set to commence in the next few weeks.
It adds construction will begin later next year, with the airport operating its first cargo services in early 2025.
Responding to Ms Dawes’s second legal challenge, Tony Freudmann, a director at RiverOak, said: “The reality is we have a DCO decision by the Secretary of State which took 17 months to prepare.”
He says if there is a judicial review hearing in the High Court, the development could be delayed by “a few months”.
“It is a very carefully considered and measured document,” he said.
“We think that people who want to know more about what is going on should read the decision which is available on the Planning Inspectorate’s website.
“It’s a 65-page document and all of the true facts are there.
“It’s significant the opponents of the airport never made reference to the jobs that are going to be created and the significant boost it will give to the local economy, which it is in desperate need of.
“We, and I’m sure the Department for Transport, will be filing our response to the application for judicial review and we hope the process will be swift this time.
“They filed the proceedings yesterday and we are an interested party and the Secretary of State has 21 days in which to file our response.”
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See earlier:
Update on Support Judicial Review of Manston Airport DCO
29.9.2022
An Application for Permission for Judicial Review of the Second Manston DCO was submitted on 29 September 2022.
This application builds on the original campaign which succeeded in getting the First Manston DCO quashed and caused the Secretary of State for Transport to carry out three further consultations before issuing a fresh decision on 18 August 2022.
This second decision, while not repeating all the errors in the first decision, is also flawed
More than £119k was raised through CrowdJustice to fund the original campaign. Additional contributions included other donations as well as costs awarded against the DfT. (Costs were also awarded against the Interested Party, the developer RiverOak Strategic Partners, but so far they have declined to pay.)
All this money was used to pay the solicitors, barristers and consultants, as well as miscellaneous disbursements like court costs, over what turned out to be a long and complicated case.
The small amount left was rolled over to support the second campaign and is held by the solicitors.
You can follow the progress of this new campaign at: CrowdJustice: Manston 2
Secretary of State approves the DCO for freight airport development at Manston
A Development Consent Order (DCO) for an air freight airport at Manston has been redetermined and granted by the government, again. The DCO application was initially submitted in August 2018 and granted in July 2020 but quashed in February 2021 following a Judicial Review challenge by Ramsgate resident Jenny Dawes. There has been a long saga of this DCO, catalogued on this webpage. Now fresh approval has been issued by Transport Minister, Karl McCartney MP, and the DCO will come into force from September 8th 2022. The order says DfT considers there is a “clear justification” for the development. On carbon, through some dubious arguments, the government does not consider the extra aviation CO2 added due to cargo at Manston to be “material” to the UK’s intention to have net zero aviation by 2050. It says it believes the Government’s Transport Decarbonisation Plan and the Jet Zero Strategy, “will ensure Government’s decarbonisation targets for the sector and the legislated carbon budgets can be met without directly limiting aviation demand. [So] he does not accept the Examining Authority’s view that carbon emissions is a matter that should be afforded moderate weight against the Development in the planning balance, and considers that it should instead be given neutral weight at the most.”
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