“Q. What do people from Herne Bay say when they see an aeroplabe flying overhead?

A. Metal bird!”

“Fair comment Michael. What is needed is some solid, sensible arbitration that balances real issues such as the aquifer, the environment as a whole and the local economy over petty gripes such as the number of decibels that annoy people.

Perhaps an openness to allowing the traffic to increase into Manston without laying any more concrete is a solution?”

“Andrew you have to appreciate that these concerns of mine are based on what the Environment Agency have said, and yes they also have concerns particularly about our road drainage, some of which they say is very dangerous and some of these problems are being put right.

The problem that we all have pro or anti, airport expansion, China Gateway and other development on the aquifer is that Southern Water and the Environment Agency both say the aquifer is essential.

A great deal of public and private time and money is involved in these projects on the sensitive part of the aquifer and from us on the on the Thanet blogs and in the local papers much concerned comment, both in the direction of supporting the local economy and in the direction of preserving our environment.

The main point I am trying to make that until Southern Water and the Environment Agency tell us what level of expansion will be acceptable, both in terms of pollution risk and hard standing reducing replenishment of the aquifer, development of this part of Thanet is in a sort of limbo.

There is most definitely a limit to the amount of concreting over we can do on the source protection zones before the amount of water is insufficient for our needs and although we could probably pipe it in from other parts of the southeast, there are two problems the first being that most of the southeast faces problems fulfilling the existing demand for water and the other is that piped in water is much more expensive, in the case of agriculture prohibitively so.”

“This is great news for Ramsgate. Until the council grows some cajones and actually monitors the airport on behalf of its electors - the residents who will suffer from its expansion - my worst wishes are with them and Infratil, who are not proving to be very good neighbours.”

“The economy is at its worst in three decades and so is Ramsgate. Increased commercial activity at Manston means jobs and livelihoods that will benefit the whole area. If the only thing opponents to growth are concerned about are their sensitive ears that is both selfish and naive.
Buy some earplugs and learn to cope! Feeding families is far more important than a few individuals ears.

Michael. I agree with your environmental assessments, however you need to look at the odds of a plane crash. The petrol tankers that drive down the Thanet roads every day pose an infinitely greater risk. Nobody stops them! The chemicals thrown on everyones lawns and gardens every spring and summer does much more sustained damage to the water supply than the remote possibility of an aircraft accident ever would. Stop that before you stop the aeroplanes.”

“Can't say I'm sorry, especially as I live right under the flight path. I feel the advantages would have been outweighed by the disadvantages.”

“Fantastic news for the residents of Ramsgate living under the flight-path.

I agree with Michael's concerns but for the residents, schools and local businesses, the noise is the major concern as it's the most intrusive and immediate problem with the airport. Our town will be blighted forever unless serious change takes place.

The council should be feeling pretty foolish this morning after jumping to the New-Zealand based airports tune. They were prepared to sell out the residents of Ramsgate by allowing extra night-flights over the town.

So, a big thank you to BAWC.
It's taken you to expose what we've thought of TDC all along.

And more importantly, what TDC thinks of the residents of Ramsgate.”

“In all the debate about the airport the main argument from the people that support it¿s expansion seems to be that as it was ok in the past so it¿s ok now.

The real problem here is one of cumulative pollution and development, Thanet was once a small chalk island about 5 miles by 5 miles, and so it¿s a small aquifer essential to our agricultural and domestic water supply.

So far 3 large water pollution incidents have been discovered, as an example at one site on the aquifer 500 tons of toxic solvent have been removed so far from the aquifer, yes 500 tons of solvent not contaminated land or water but neat solvent.

This and the other pollution incidents that have occurred over the years mean that a lot of the aquifer is now useless, permanently damaged and boreholes have had to be closed.

We are now down to it being only the boreholes near the airport that supply relatively clean water, one big fuel spillage from a plane crash in this part of the garden of England and it¿s no more agriculture and much higher water bills.

We also have another big problem that is replenishment and the cumulative effect of expansion covering more of the aquifer

Take for example Thanet Earth, not only will the rain falling on the huge area of greenhouses not be soaking into the ground and replenishing the water supply, but they will also be pumping water out of the ground.

There is also China Gateway to consider with all of its problems, relating both to the high risk of pollution from such a large industrial development and once again a large area of the aquifer where the rain won¿t be able to get in and replenish it.

I think really the argument is really moving away from how much of Thanet we can concrete over before it becomes a very unpleasant place to live and how much we can concrete over and still have enough water.

If this were some futuristic story about an area slowly destroying its own water supply we would read it sagely knowing that it couldn¿t happen here in England. The problem though is that it really is happening here in Thanet now.”