Material provided in support of the Manston Airport proposals.

As no formal application has been made to The Planning Inspectorate by the developer, the Manston Airport scheme is at its 'Pre-Application' stage. The application is expected to be submitted to the Planning Inspectorate Q4 2016.
I note from your email that you have already contacted the developer, and at this stage of the Planning Act 2008 process I would strongly encourage you, the Save Manston Airport Group and it’s members, to continue to correspond directly with them. Taking part by commenting at this stage does not prejudice your ability to make comments to The Planning Inspectorate on the scheme later in the process. However, until the application is submitted, your first point of contact should be the developer. In response to your observation, The Planning Inspectorate and developer have scheduled a project update meeting on the 22 April 2016. It is likely that during this meeting, the level of support or opposition to the scheme will be discussed. The information from the meeting will be made available on the following website:
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Should the application be formally submitted, the Planning Inspectorate on behalf of the Secretary of State has a 28 day period to determine whether to accept the application to progress to Examination. If the application progresses to Examination, the process then asks people to register as an ‘Interested Party’ with the Planning Inspectorate by sending us a 'Relevant Representation' about the proposal. This Representation will be considered by the appointed Examining Authority during the Examination period.
For further advice on making a representation, The Planning Inspectorate has published a series of advice notes to help people take part in the Planning Act 2008 process. In this instance, I recommend the 'advice note eight series: How to get involved in the planning process' which can be accessed via the following link:
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We note in some of the material you appended to your email it states that “Now listed on the National Planning Inspectorate web site, at the pre-application stage, the fact that this is at a National Planning level means that the DCO trumps any local CPO process.” We have discussed a similar question and provided the following response that might be helpful to you and your members:
Question 1 - In thinking about the interaction or relationship between different regimes (particularly the Planning Act 2008 (PA2008) and the Town and Country Planning Act (TCPA)), what would happen to a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP) application if Thanet District Council progressed with finding a suitable indemnity partner to pursue a Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) of the airfield site?
A Development Consent Order can include powers of Compulsory Acquisition in much the same way as a Compulsory Purchase Order can. In both cases, this is a considerable power which has an effect on the rights of other people. It is necessary to demonstrate a compelling case in the public interest to acquire interests and rights compulsorily. The justification for including such powers in a Development Consent Order under the PA2008 is normally that the proposed scheme has a compelling public benefit which could not be delivered without those powers.
It is very rare that there are competing proposals to compulsorily acquire land, but if this were to occur the likelihood and desirably of the alternative uses for the land, and their relative public benefits, are likely to be put forward in submissions and would be carefully taken into account by the relevant Secretary of State before deciding whether or not to grant powers of Compulsory Purchase or Acquisition.