Court of Appeal clears Manston Airport redevelopment plans for take-off
The Court of Appeal has dismissed a long-running crowdfunded legal challenge to plans to redevelop Manston Airport in Kent as an airfreight hub.
The airport, on the Isle of Thanet, has been in use since the First World War. In the Second World War, engineer Barnes Wallace designed and tested the famous bouncing bombs used in the “Dambusters” raid at the site.
Prior to its closure in 2014, Manston was in use as a cargo and passenger airport, used by carriers such as Flybe and KLM.
The Court of Appeal has dismissed a long-running crowdfunded legal challenge to plans to redevelop Manston Airport in Kent as an airfreight hub.
The airport, on the Isle of Thanet, has been in use since the First World War. In the Second World War, engineer Barnes Wallace designed and tested the famous bouncing bombs used in the “Dambusters” raid at the site.
Prior to its closure in 2014, Manston was in use as a cargo and passenger airport, used by carriers such as Flybe and KLM.
Owner Riveroak Strategic Partners has been seeking permission to reopen the airport as a freight hub since 2018. Development consent was granted by the government in 2020 but it was quashed following a judicial review brought by Ramsgate resident Jenifer Dawes.
The decision was then reconsidered by the government and consent was again granted in 2022. However, Dawes raised more than £77,000 via a crowdfunding campaign and brought a second challenge last year, alleging procedural unfairness. She lost the case in the Hight Court ([2023] EWHC 2352 (Admin); [2023] PLSCS 163), but continued her crowdfunding campaign and took the case to the Court of Appeal.
In a ruling handed down yesterday (21 May) a three-judge panel at the Court of Appeal backed the lower court judgment and dismissed her case, which argued that the judge had made mistakes in law in coming to judgment.
In a post on her crowdfunding page, Dawes said she knew that the case “would be difficult”.
“Nothing in the decision confirms that Manston Airport is viable,” she said. “The economic case for Manston Airport has not improved; nor have the climate change concerns been resolved.
“I remain firmly of the view that the government’s decision to proceed with Manston Airport, in the face of all the expert evidence to the contrary and the worsening climate change crisis, is nonsensical.”
R (on the application of Dawes) v Secretary of State for Transport and another
[2024] EWCA Civ 560; [2024] PLSCS 96
Court of Appeal (Jackson, Lewis and Warby LJJ) 21 May 2024
Photo © Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
