Can Manston flights get off the ground again?
Plus Kent MPs rebel on welfare reforms, the latest happenings at KCC, news in brief, and more
Could flights take off from Manston Airport once again? That’s the plan of one company with big ambitions to see 10,000 flights running from the site by 2033. But just how feasible is it? We look at the plans and their prospects below. Further down, we have news on what’s been happening at Kent County Council this week, look at which Kent Labour MPs joined a major rebellion against the government, news in brief, and lots more.
Can Manston flights get off the ground again?
Since Manston Airport shut its doors to commercial flights in May 2014, it has become one of Thanet’s most hotly debated plots of land. To some, it’s a strategic national asset waiting for its renaissance. To others, it’s a windswept lorry park with delusions of grandeur that’s seen more boot fairs than passengers in the last decade.
The site’s history is certainly busy, if not always successful. RAF Manston once served as a key airfield in both world wars, and later as a civil airport, it watched a procession of short-lived operators come and go. Brief dalliances with EUjet, Flybe, and KLM tried to position the airport as a budget airline hub, but little seemed to stick. By April 2014, Manston’s last scheduled flight took off.
Since then, the closest thing to an international movement at Manston has been rows of lorries parked during covid or production companies using the old terminal for film productions.
Enter RiverOak Strategic Partners, who bought the site in 2019 and immediately set about plotting a revival, but not by chasing after low-cost airlines. The new pitch is freight, and lots of it. Their plan, immortalised in planning applications, press releases, and a fancy website, is to transform Manston into a freight-focused operation with hopes of seeing up to 10,000 cargo flights a year within five years of reopening. That’s roughly 27 landings or take-offs a day, which would be a significant jump from the current baseline of zero.
The legal and bureaucratic dance required to make this happen has been lengthy. Because of the airport’s size and ambitions, RiverOak needed a Development Consent Order, a sort of government permission slip for major national infrastructure projects. The DCO was first approved in July 2020, promptly challenged and overturned in court, and then reissued in August 2022 after a further review. Not to be outdone, campaigners brought yet another legal challenge, but in May 2024, the Court of Appeal dismissed it. At last count, the DCO is now in force, and RiverOak, in theory, has permission to start turning their blueprints into reality.
So what are the plans? The official documents detail a phased redevelopment of the airport. The first step is resurfacing the 2.7km runway and building new cargo stands, followed by a 65,500sqm cargo terminal, a new control tower, maintenance hangars, and more. The aim is not just to shift boxes, but to eventually reintroduce passenger flights, flight training, business aviation, and every conceivable aviation-adjacent job, should demand appear.
RiverOak claim Manston’s rebirth could create 2,150 direct on-site jobs by the fifth year of operation, with the potential for over 13,000 more in the wider economy through supply chains and service industries. Kent County Council and Thanet District Council have tentatively welcomed the plans. There also remain questions about just how viable the proposals are. Much depends on growth projections being met and airlines, logistics companies, and a robust post-Brexit import and export market all turning up on cue. No airline has publicly confirmed a plan to relaunch flights from Manston, so dreams of a cheap weekend trip from Europe may remain just that for now.
Then there’s the small matter of the neighbours. Communities in Ramsgate, Minster, and Cliffsend are keenly interested in what happens next. Local campaigners, including the long-running No Night Flights group, have raised concerns about noise, pollution, and the impact of HGVs on already battered local roads. RiverOak’s answer, spelt out in the DCO and supporting documents, is that no routine scheduled flights will take off or land between 11pm and 7am, though exceptions for delays and emergencies will exist just in case a cargo operator can’t keep to time.
Environmental impact is another sticking point. RiverOak have promised the airport’s own operations will be “net zero,” though much depends on details still being finalised and on broader decarbonisation across the aviation industry. The Planning Inspectorate’s own examining panel was sceptical of the business case for a new UK freight airport, recommending refusal, but the government gave Manston the nod regardless.
RiverOak suggests construction could start in early 2027, with the first flights possible by 2028 if funding, licensing, and infrastructure all slot neatly into place. Before then, an airshow is planned this August, billed as a last chance to see Manston in its present form. This assumes, of course, that there are no further twists in a tale that already has more than enough.
For now, the runway remains quiet. Whether Manston finally becomes a cargo hub or simply adds another chapter to its saga of reinvention is anyone’s guess, but it does feel like a return to flights from the airport might be closer than they’ve been in a while.
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The week in Kent County Council
The latest in an ongoing series on what is (or isn’t) happening at Kent County Council this week…
Following our reporting last week about the councillor register of interests not being completed and published within the 28 day period, KCC told us that “all members submitted their Register of Interests to the Monitoring Officer within 28 days of being elected.” They went on to tell us that they will be published “in due course.” Which is a sort of progress, even if we are now 56 days after the election.
Big news for democracy fans, as KCC might actually have some committee meetings taking place next week. After two months of everything being cancelled, only two of next week’s six scheduled meetings have been cancelled or postponed.
In this week’s baffling Reform DOGE claim of the week, Zia Yusuf announced that KCC spends £100m a year on people working from home. It is unclear where that figure comes from and no evidence has been provided to back it up.
The government has rebuffed efforts from new KCC Leader Linden Kemkaran to delay the timeline for local government reorganisation in Kent. Cllr Kemkaran wrote to the government and said that the existing November timeline would be “almost impossible” to meet, but said that she had received a “hard no” from Local Government Minister Jim McMahon.
Kent MPs prepare to rebel for the first time
The government has been facing its first serious rebellion since taking office last year, with Labour MPs coming out against their own government’s plans for significant reductions to disability and sickness-related benefits.
Labour took 11 Kent constituencies at last year’s General Election, though their number of MPs in the county has since fallen to ten after Canterbury’s Rosie Duffield resigned the whip to sit as an independent.
Of the ten Labour MPs in Kent, four have publicly chosen to rebel on the welfare reforms, adding their names to an amendment that would likely stop the plans from progressing through Parliament.
Polly Billington (East Thanet), Lauren Edwards (Rochester and Strood), Kevin McKenna (Sittingbourne and Sheppey), and Tony Vaughan (Folkestone and Hythe) all chose to come out against the plans.
It does appear that the rebels have been successful in their efforts, with the Guardian reporting tonight that the government is offering massive concessions on their plans to get the bill through. We’ll find out by next week whether it’s been enough to bring them back onside.
In brief
🗣️ Medway Council will vote on whether to publish its new Local Plan at a special full council meeting tonight. The area has been without a Local Plan since the previous one expired in 2011.
📒 Tonbridge & Malling Borough Council have published their masterplan framework for regenerating the east of the town centre. The report, scheduled to be debated next week, would see existing car parks and the Angel Leisure Centre replaced by over 120 new homes, a new leisure centre, healthcare facilities, a hotel, and a new river park.
🏚️ Higher council tax levies on second homes in Folkestone & Hythe are set to generate more than £2m. Data obtained by the Folkestone Dispatch shows that nearly 900 second homes currently exist within the district.
💷 The government has identified Park Wood and Senacre estates in Maidstone to receive ‘trailblazer neighbourhood’ funding for a £20m scheme. No one knows what it means or how much the area will get, but everyone seems very happy.
🚓 Business owners in Broadstairs have raised concerns about anti-social behaviour in the town, following incidents with large groups of teenagers fighting and damaging property.
🚒 A fire in Rainham caused significant damage to rail signalling systems on Tuesday, leading to more than 24 hours of service disruption.
☢️ New Romney Marsh councillor David Wimble is calling for the government to build a small modular nuclear reactor at Dungeness. The government previously deemed the location unsuitable, but is now on a renewed push to introduce the technology.
👷 The Environment Agency has started an operation to remove 30,000 tonnes of waste illegally dumped in Hoads Wood near Ashford. More than 50 specialist workers have been deployed as part of the process.
🛟 The RNLI is set to begin work on a new £3.5m lifeboat station in Margate.
🚶➡️ Natural England has opened a 28-mile walking route around the Isle of Sheppey. The project feeds into a wider 2,700-mile England Coastal Path that is still being developed.
🦡 A Kent wildlife charity says it has been inundated with badgers this year. Folly Wildlife Rescue near Tunbridge Wells says warm weather and increased traffic accidents have led to the surge.
🦋 A moth thought to be extinct in England has been rediscovered at a nature reserve near Dover.
🪖 Historic wartime tunnels beneath the White Cliffs of Dover have been unearthed.
🪂 An idiot has been spotted throwing himself off the same cliffs with a parachute.
👩 Equality charity Power of Women Thanet is set to close after ten years, describing their position as ‘unsustainable’ in an ‘increasingly challenging funding environment.’
🖼️ Two Kent museums are shortlisted in the Family Friendly Museum Awards. The Amelia Scott Museum in Tunbridge Wells is up for Best Medium Museum, while the Beaney in Canterbury is up for Best Accessible Museum.
🎬 Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon have been filming scenes for the latest series of The Trip in Kent. The actors descended on a coffee shop in Reculver to record for their upcoming Trip to the Northern Lights.
🎞️ Little White Lies has been exploring Whitstable and the ongoing influence of actor Peter Cushing on the town.
🏡 A unique bungalow near Maidstone, built in a modernist style inspired by Frank Lloyd-Wright in the 1970s, is up for sale for £1m. It looks delightful.
More Currents
Coming up on Sunday, our big weekend interview is with Kent comedian and star of Amazon’s Last One Laughing, Harriet Kemsley. We talk about her route into comedy, her experiences on that show, her personal life playing out in the public eye, and lots more. As ever, our big interviews are exclusive to our paid supporters, so please consider upgrading if you haven’t already.
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