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Thanet District Council response to Wiggins EIS

By: Director of Planning Services

Portfolio:      Policy and Finance
                    Regeneration
                    Community Services

To: Cabinet

Subject: AN ENVIRONMENTAL STATEMENT FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF LONDON MANSTON AIRPORT

Classification: Unrestricted

Summary: Comments on the submitted document following consultation.

1.1. A suggested commentary on the submitted document to be forwarded to the Airport Owners for their consideration and to enable them to establish the next steps prior to submission of a major planning application, which would be accompanied by a formal Environmental Impact Statement.

2.1. None at this stage.

The Process

3.1. The requirement for the Environmental Impact Statement is contained within the Section 106 Agreement, drawn up between the council and Wiggins, as the developers. This, of course, is not the usual circumstances for the production of an environmental statement in that it is not connected with a specific development proposal in the way of a planning application. This is because the council and Wiggins wished to advise everyone - at an early stage - what the options were in terms of development and the consequences environmentally of that level of development - hence the 106 required a Masterplan followed by the Environmental Statement which sets out the company’s aspirations for development and what that level of development is likely to mean to the local environment.

3.2. As Members will be aware, the process of consultation came to an end on the 14th December 2001 and the council is invited to give its response to the document, in the light of consultation comments.

3.3. In a way this environmental statement represents the beginning of an ongoing process - it should not be regarded as being set in stone at this point. The company is in the fortunate position of developing the environmental statement in consultation with the community - before having to make a formal environmental statement submission to accompany a major planning application when that comes about.

3.4. In short, the environmental statement could be seen as a dry run for the full thing, and that means that even though a substantial amount of work has already been done in a relatively short time, any deficiencies (and obviously there are some) can be corrected and amended, and information developed, such that at least there is some common ground about the base information and the process, although perhaps there may not be the same degree of consensus about how that information is interpreted, by the time a major application is submitted.

3.5. It is anticipated, therefore, that over the next few months the environmental statement will be reworked and amended in two specific ways. Firstly, to address deficiencies in the base information (which the owners have clearly acknowledged) and in developing what it is hoped will be an agreed approach to interpretation of that base information by the major agencies who will subsequently look at the work formally in the event that a major planning application is made. This area of work will deal with the general environmental concerns and background information in relation to the airport as a whole. Secondly, in preparation for a major application, which the owners have confirmed will be a proposal for a new passenger terminal, to specifically address the environmental impact of that proposal - such that on submission of the planning application there is a well researched and worked up environmental statement which addresses all of the appropriate issues identified and in what should be, an agreed approach by all of the formal consultees to developing the base information and the method of interpretation and which then permits the local authority to address these issues constructively when dealing with that planning application.

3.6. The message, therefore, is that this is an ongoing process and not a finished, take it or leave it, document.

3.7. To aid Members appreciation of the concerns raised as a result of the public consultation, all letters received during the consultation period will be available for Members to read in the Members Lounge throughout January and a note to that effect has been placed in the TDC News.

3.8. In total 26 letters were received including some from what I might term the statutory consultees - KCC, Dover District Council, SWA and English Heritage.

Detailed Commentary on EIS

3.9. See attached commentary at Appendix A under the various headings identified. Those highlighted in bold are the areas which the Council considers that the owners need to address before submission of any major application for planning permission, such as the suggested new passenger terminal. For ease of reference they have been drawn together as a Summary at Appendix B.

4.1. That the Council acknowledge receipt of the Environmental Impact Assessment document dated the 10th October 2001 and advise the airport owners that prior to the formal submission of an Environmental Impact Statement accompanying any major application for planning permission, the Council would wish to see further work undertaken to enhance the current statement which should address the matters highlighted in Appendices A and B to this report.

Environmental Impact Statement

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