Manston airport has been given the go-ahead to take extra traffic during the 2012 Olympics. The plan seems to be to saturate airspace over the south east and use Manston and a few other smaller airports to handle the excess. So Ramsgate residents should consider moving well away from the whole miserable circus if they had planned to do anything other than sit in their cellars wearing ear defenders. On the bright side…oh, there isn’t a bright side. Let’s check who benefits here: the airlines, presumably, and the airport will be taking a bit extra. Thanet won’t be seeing any of that. Anyone who arrives at Manston for the Olympics is going to find the fastest way from here to there and won’t be spending any time or money here either. Possibly there’ll be a little overtime for whatever staff remain at the airport by then.
Contrast this with Bromley council who were considering whether their local airport, Biggin Hill, should offer to take Olympic traffic. No, they said, the benefits would not outweigh the inconvenience to local residents. Unlike Manston, Biggin Hill is situated well away from the town. So how much time did TDC spend considering the pros and cons? The usual, of course – the only question they will have asked is “where are the brown envelopes?”.
Ratty hopes the Lithuanian egg-and-spoon team appreciates the sacrifices forced upon Ramsgate by the fat, slobbering cretins at TDC as the wheels of their 747 bounce across the chimneys of our once glorious town.
Ramsgate Rat 