To: Manston Airport Consultative Committee – 11 March 2004

From: Brian Lear – Acting Strategic Director, Thanet D.C.

Classification: Unrestricted

1. Introduction

1. Members of the Committee will be aware I am sure from the local press reports that Thanet District Council (the Council) considered the issue of night flights during the latter part of 2003 for a second time on the evening of the 19 February 2004. At the earlier Council meeting in December 2003 members had deferred making a decision to allow the Chief Executive to seek further information from the airport operators.
2. The Chief Executive’s report of the 19 February indicated that despite requesting the information required by members he had been unable to gain the detail and clarity required. Members were therefore advised of the number of flights that the airport had reported to the Council as having occurred between the hours of 2300 and 0700 from January to December 2003. This information is provided at Annex 1 to this report.
3. Members were also advised that the Section 106 Agreement allows up to 12 flight movements during these hours in any one calendar year provided the Council is satisfied that they can be properly considered to come within the exception of, humanitarian mercy or emergency flights by a relief organisation. Any other flight movement by an aircraft with a Quota Count (QC) rating of more than 4 would be a breach of the Agreement and subject to a fine.
4. Following debate on the issues to hand the Council determined that the night flights were a breach of the Agreement and that the airport operator would be required to pay the requisite fine. On the evening of the debate 41 members voted for the enforcement of the Agreement, 1 voted against enforcing the Agreement, 1 abstained and 2 did not vote.

2. The Fine Requested
1. The Annex to this report provides the committee with detail of the number of flight movements that the Airport Director reported to the Council for two period – January to August 2003 and September to December 2003. From this table it can be seen that there were 13 flight movements in the first period and 17 in the second.
2. The Council was considering the night flights that had occurred since 1 September 2003 at the meeting on the 19 February but the level of fine is affected by what has happened prior to September – whether or not a particular aircraft has already contravened the Agreement on one or more occasion.
3. It will be seen that of the 13 that occurred in the first part of 2003, 5 were either commercial aircraft with a QC of 4 or less or a light aircraft for the purposes of the Agreement. Based on this information and the list of aircraft that had undertaken flight movements between September and December 2003 the fine that accrues for the September to December period is £52,000. The fine column of the table indicates how this figure has been arrived at.
4. This report deals with the last 3 months of 2003 but the Committee needs to be aware that the airport has and continues to submit fine payments for the period prior to the 1 September 2003.
3. Action Initiated
1. Following the decision by Council the Chief Executive has now written to the Mr. G. Lansbury formally advising him of the Council’s decision. The airport has also been invited through this letter to forward the fine imposed to the account of the Manston Environmental Improvement Fund that the Council holds on behalf of this committee.

3.2 A copy of the table provided as the Annex to this report had been previously provided to the Airport Director but a further copy has also been provided with the above letter so that the airport can challenge the calculation if they believe it is incorrect. It is also possible that the airport may decide to challenge the substantive decision of the Council but to date we have no reason to believe that the airport will do so.

4. Recommendation
1. Members of the Committee are invited to note the contents of this report and the committee will be updated through the Chair of any progress in this matter.

Brian Lear 4 March 2003

ANNEX 1

Night flights from 01 January 2003 to 31 August 2003

Night Flights from 01 September 2003 to 31 December 2003