High Court judge rejects application to legally challenge August 2022 approval of Manston expansion plans
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Legal challenge against Manston Airport plans dismissed
19 JAN, 2023
BY CATHERINE MOORE (New Civil Engineer)
A legal challenge against the proposed reopening of Manston Airport has been dismissed.
The plans for the airport were given the green light in August last year by parliamentary under secretary of state for transport Karl McCartney.
Following this, Ramsgate resident Jenny Dawes applied for a judicial review of the decision but this has now been refused. In her 1,200-page appeal, Dawes said the reopening “Manston Airport will cause irreparable harm to the people, environment and the economy of east Kent”.
RiverOak Strategic Partners’ (RSP) planning application is specifically for the upgrade and reopening of the airport primarily as a freight airport, with some passenger services, with a capacity of at least 12,000 air cargo movements per year.
A spokesperson for RSP said: “We have just been notified that the application for a judicial review of the government’s decision to grant the DCO has been dismissed.
“We now look forward to getting the process of turning Manston into a state of-the-art air freight hub underway and working to support the long-term economic development of East Kent, through the reopening of Manston, that we set out in the application.”
The plans were given the go ahead in August despite planners recommending that the development consent order application (DCO) be refused.
The Planning Inspectorate had previously concluded that “the Applicant had failed to demonstrate sufficient need for the Proposed Development, additional to (or different from) the need which is met by the provision of existing airports” and highlighted climate change, harm to heritage assets, noise, operational issues and impacts on local road network as other concerns.
As such its overall conclusion was that the benefits would not outweigh its impacts and that development consent should not be granted.
The planning decision marked the conclusion of a lengthy process, with a decision to grant the scheme’s DCO originally published in July 2020. In February 2021, this was overturned by the High Court and the application was redetermined.
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Jenny Dawes says they were unlucky in having the case assessed by an Immigration and Tribunal judge, not one with experience of planning. This is always a risk with applications for JR. Her lawyers are putting in an application for an oral hearing on Monday – their barrister says the judge is just wrong and the grounds are arguable.
Manston Airport set for take-off after legal challenge snubbed
By Brad Harper bharper@thekmgroup.co.uk (Kent online)
17 January 2023
A second bid to ground plans to reopen Manston Airport has been rejected by a High Court judge.
Ramsgate resident Jenny Dawes applied for a judicial review of the decision to allow the Thanet site to be transformed into a cargo hub. Manston Airport has been shut for years.
The move meant the decision in August to green-light the multi-million-pound scheme was reassessed by a High Court judge. And it has since been announced the application was refused – sparking hopes the site will soon be relaunched.
Reacting to the news, bosses from RSP, the company pushing ahead with the airport scheme, said: “We have just been notified that the application for a judicial review has been dismissed.
“We now look forward to getting the process of turning Manston into a state of-the-art air freight hub underway and working to support the long-term economic development of east Kent that we set out in the application.”
The government originally granted a Development Consent Order (DCO) three years ago, a move that appeared to pave the way for the RSP-owned site to reopen.
But in February 2021, it was officially quashed by the High Court, following a judicial review launched by Ms Dawes.
Despite this, the Department for Transport confirmed in August its DCO had once again been granted.
Just one month later, Ms Dawes filed a 1,200-page appeal claiming the reopening “Manston Airport will cause irreparable harm to the people, environment and the economy of east Kent”.
North Thanet MP Sir Roger Gale says the today’s ruling is “clear and unequivocal” – and hopes it will “be accepted by all parties”.
“It will, I believe, clear the way for the massive investment in the re-development of Manston as a freight hub and subsequent passenger airport to commence very soon,” the veteran Conservative said.
“We have waited for a long time for this moment but the future is at last clear – the future of modern aviation is Manston.
“I am grateful to all of those who have maintained their confidence in a project that is of great national as well as local importance and that has the potential to create many jobs and significant prosperity in east Kent.”
South Thanet MP Craig Mackinlay (Con) has also welcomed the decision.
“I’m delighted the application for judicial review of the government’s decision to grant the Manston DCO has been dismissed,” he said.
“We can now start the process of getting our airport working – bringing jobs and huge local investment.”
In September, RSP director Tony Freudmann told KentOnline construction will begin later this year – with the airport operating its first cargo services in early 2025.
He warned if there was a judicial review hearing at the High Court, the development could be delayed by “a few months”.
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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.”
Click here to view full story…
Independent assessors for Manston expansion plans say there is no need for the extra air freight capacity
The Development Consent Order (DCO) for the re-opening and development of Manston as a freight airport was rejected by the High Court in February 2021. This was after Secretary of State for Transport, Grant Shapps, in July 2020 had decided to ignore the advice of the Planning Inspectorate (PI) in October 2019, that the DCO should be rejected. Grant Shapps said it should go ahead, but the court said there had not been enough detail for reasons to go against the advice of the PI. Grant Shapps then had to “re-determine” the DCO application, and people could submit reasons to the PI for why the airport proposal should be refused. A team was set up as “independent assessor” to investigate the justification for the airport’s expansion, and report back to Mr Shapps. The team’s report has now been published. It concludes that “the levels of freight that the Proposed Development could expect to handle are modest and could be catered for at existing airports … Manston appears to offer no obvious advantages to outweigh the strong competition that such airports offer. ...the Applicant has failed to demonstrate sufficient need for the Proposed Development”. Further submissions are welcomed until 19th November.
Click here to view full story…
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And earlier news about Manston at
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