The SMAa Committee submitted a letter to the Planning Inspectorate, supporting the Manston Airport DCO, and requesting that the process move forwards faster, so that thousands of pro Manston Airport supporters can register their support and comments in the pre-Examination and Examination stages.
The letter was signed by the SMAa Committee on behalf of 3,500 members and endorsed by 1,850 signatures, collected specifically for the letter, from both SMAa members and national and international signatories who actively wish for Manston to re-open for jobs and travel.
“Dear Planning Inspectorate,
You have requested that the Save Manston Airport association (SMAa) members send multi-signature letters rather than lots of separate ones.
We have generally respected the ruling that Pre-application Stage 1 is not the correct time to write to PINS but this may now be working to our disadvantage because it is clear that it is being ignored by several vociferous opponents of Manston as an Airport - we have been waiting in anticipation of Stages 3 and 4 for a long time.
Notwithstanding the above we now feel we should object most strongly to the apparent inclusion of items into the Acceptance stage (as discussed in the minutes of the recent meeting with RSP, on the PINS web site) that properly belong in the Examination stage.
SMAa just wish to remind PINS that we are here and urgently waiting for the DCO to move to the Pre-examination and Examination stages, these being the correct times for us to express our views to you. This delay is effectively preventing our members and other pro-aviation people from expressing their viewpoints; viewpoints that will certainly be presented at the Pre-examination and Examination stages.
There is presently a live SHP planning application (OL/TH/18/0660) on the Thanet District Council web-site regarding a major housing development on the Manston Airport site; on reading the representations the vast majority are Objections and are pro-airport. The latest figures at close of play Tuesday 6th June 2018 stands at: Grand total percentages: Supports Housing: 20.46%; Objections: 78.01%; Neutral:1.53%.
So SMAa would claim an effective level of support for the airport and for the DCO process from local residents and businesses to keep Manston for aviation; this stands at least at 78%, well in line with the results of the two previous SHP planning applications to TDC, and many other polls, elections, petitions, etc.
The population of Thanet and East Kent are waiting for these jobs, and they are getting concerned at the continual delays, they wish to express their views!"

When an application is withdrawn, and where the Applicant states a clear intention to resubmit at some point in the future, the stage of the process reverts from Acceptance to Pre-application. The meeting held on 11 May 2018 took place at the Pre-application stage and its content included advice to the Applicant in respect of the Planning Inspectorate’s three principal concerns with the application documents submitted on 10 April 2018. All three concerns directly related the Acceptance tests set out in s55 of the Planning Act 2008, including s55(3)(f) which states that application must be of standard that the Secretary of State considers satisfactory.
In respect of the content of your 13 June 2018 email, please note that only correspondence regarding an applicant’s formal statutory consultation under s42, s47 and/ or s48 can be considered at the Acceptance stage. All other aspects of the Acceptance decision are deliberated and taken by the Secretary of State on the basis of the application documents alone.
If an application is resubmitted, and subsequently accepted for examination, SMAa (and anybody else) will be able to make submissions about the merits of the Proposed Development in a Relevant Representation: attachment 1