Manston Airport Consultative Committee (M.A.C.C)

1. Information
1. This subject was discussed by the MACC on 15 December 2004. Members of the Committee are familiar with the proposal received from Planestation.
2. The Council, and MACC, made the issue public domain. It was reported to the Cabinet of the Council in December, which agreed to support the principle, and recommend it to Full Council.
3. Full Council met on 13^th January. It received a petition expressing opposition to night-time flights, and several questions were taken from members of the public at the start of the meeting. Full Council then agreed to accept the principle of eleven scheduled night-time passenger arrivals. Negotiation of the detailed policy being delegated to the Chief Executive or other officers as he may determine. It was greed that the policy will include;

1. only EU Jet fleet passenger aircraft with a QC of 0.5 shall be permitted to land;
2. all arrivals to approach from the west and land on runway 10 (ie not Ramsgate). Any exceptions must be reported with justification;
3. the policy will apply for the six months of summer 2005, April-September, and no longer;
4. aviation industry best practice noise monitoring of night flying must be in place prior to any arrivals, and throughout the six month period;
5. using specialist aviation consultant advice regular reports on performance, especially direction of arrival and noise shall be produced by the Airport for the Council;
6. penalties to apply for additional night-time passenger flights.

1. Dialogue between the Airport Owner and the Council is approaching completion. The Policy must obviously be in place for April.
2. When agreed the final version will be public domain, and copied to all those who expressed an interest in the subject to the Council, and of course the Chairman and Secretary of MACC in order that it may be forwarded to all members of the MACC.

Brian White
Head of Environmental Services
Thanet District Council
Tel: 01843 577007
HES@thanet.gov.uk

MONITORING NIGHT FLIGHTS: A PROPOSAL BY CHAIRMAN, MACC, FOR CONSIDERATION AT THE MACC MEETING ON 22 MARCH 2005

Circumstances have forced us all into accepting a schedule for April to September 2005 which involves 13 aircraft weekly arriving between the hours of 2300 and 0100 – leave aside aircraft scheduled earlier but arriving late between these night hours, as has been occurring frequently during the past winter. There has been a certain amount of protest about this development, which represents a significant departure in policy by KIA as well as a departure from the current s106 Agreement, and about the way in which it happened.

We should at least not waste this unique opportunity to assess very carefully the degree of disturbance which night flights cause to the community. This involves monitoring objective levels of noise generated by individual aircraft; monitoring the extent to which the community complains about them; and collecting other evidence about levels of disturbance.

1) Formally request Thanet DC to postpone negotiation of the clauses about nightflying in the new s106 Agreement until there has been time to monitor and assess the full six months of summer night flights.

2) Request the Director of the airport, starting as soon as possible and at latest wef the first day of the summer schedule, to supply to TDC and MACC within one week from the last day of each month

- a list of all arrivals and departures during that month between the hours of 2300 and 0700, with columns for aircraft type, departure or arrival, runway used, on schedule or late/early.

- a list of all complaints made during the month about air traffic movements between 2300 and 0700.

3) Request Manchester Airport Consultants, through PlaneStation, starting as soon as possible and at latest wef the first day of the summer schedule, to supply to TDC and MACC within one week of the last day of each month readings from the fixed noise monitors showing the noise made by each individual flight arriving between 2300 and 0700.

4) Request Thanet District Council to nominate an officer responsible for collating this information and providing MACC with a comprehensive monthly picture of the effect of all night flights.

5) Request Thanet District Council urgently to seek ways of accurately assessing public reaction to the summer night flights, in consultation with MACC.

6) Request Thanet District Council to let MACC know their findings as soon as possible in October, ie after the end of the summer schedule.

7) Consider postponing the quarterly MACC meeting from September to October so as to provide an early opportunity to debate those findings.

Alistair Hunter, March 2005

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