The High Court in London has dismissed a legal challenge to plans to redevelop Manston Airport in Kent as an airfreight hub.
In a ruling handed down last week, High Court judge Mr Justice Dove dismissed the claim for procedural unfairness brought by Ramsgate resident Jennifer Dawes.
The airport, on the Isle of Thanet, has been in use since the First World War. In World War Two, engineer Barnes Wallace designed and tested the famous bouncing bombs used in the Dambusters raid at the site.
For much of its history it has been used as a cargo and passenger airport, used by carriers such as Flybe and KLM. However, it closed in 2014.
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 Dawes.
The decision was then reconsidered by the government, and consent was again granted last year. However, Dawes raised more than £77,000 via a crowdfunding campaign and brought a second challenge earlier this year, alleging procedural unfairness.
In a post on her crowdfunding page, Dawes said she plans to appeal the latest ruling.
“Having already succeeded once in a judicial review against the secretary of state’s first decision to approve Manston Airport, we always knew it would be more difficult to succeed a second time round,” she said.
“However, I remain firmly of the view that the government’s decision to proceed with Manston Airport, in the face of expert evidence to the contrary and in the context of the worsening climate crisis, is nonsensical, and the procedure followed by the secretary of state was deeply flawed. The case raises significant issues relating to DCO redetermination processes, which will have an impact on how those cases are conducted in the future.
“I will therefore be appealing today’s ruling.”
King on the Application of Jennifer Dawes v Secretary of State for the Transport Department and
Riveroak Strategic Partners Ltd
Planning Court (Dove J) 22 September 2023
