An independent aviation assessor has concluded there is no need for a new freight airport at the former Manston airport site.

The decision was revealed in a report by Ove Arup & Partners, the firm drafted in to examine the decision made over whether the new cargo airport near Ramsgate could go ahead.

In July 2020, the government granted a Development Consent Order enabling the airport, owned by RiverOak Strategic Partners (RSP), to reopen.

But in February this year, it was officially quashed by the High Court.

It followed a judicial review launched by campaigner Jenny Dawes, which included evidence against Transport Secretary Grant Shapps' approval of a DCO, which went against the Planning Inspectorate's recommendation.

It led to Mr Shapps having to withdraw his previous DCO and an independent assessment to take place.

Ove Arup’s report concludes there have been no significant changes that would lead to a different conclusion than that reached by the Planning Inspectorate’s ExA Report in 2019, which concluded there was “no need case” for the development proposed by RiverOak Strategic Partners.

The report adds: "Despite the uncertainty concerning the timescale for the Heathrow Airport Third Runway, changes since July 2019 as described do not lead the Independent Assessor to reach a different conclusion on the need case for Manston Airport.

"East Midlands Airport has sufficient capacity to handle additional dedicated freighter services should the market demand them, while the planning determination at Stansted confirms that significant freight capacity remains available.

"There is no new evidence to suggest a different conclusion should be drawn in respect of the locational performance of Manston compared to East Midlands Airport, and to a lesser extent Stansted, to that of the ExA Report."

Ramsgate resident Jenny Dawes said: "I am cautiously pleased by the findings of the Independent Assessor’s report and am now preparing a detailed response to the Secretary of State."

But RSP has branded the assessor's report report “amateur and poorly constructed”.

In a statement on its website, the developer says: "The content of this report does not address the broader strategic need case set out in the Secretary of State’s original decision letter and is little more than a by-the-numbers review of the Examining Authority’s previous report, and series of opaque assertions using pre-2019 data, with little or no detailed analysis or reasoning behind any of the conclusions drawn.

"For a report designed to inform the government’s decision making on the nation’s long term global airfreight capacity needs, the thinking behind it appears firmly stuck in a pre-Covid past.

"It takes no account of the need for greater resilience in our logistics infrastructure the pandemic has highlighted."

It adds: "Effectively, this report concludes that the Secretary of State should look in the rear view mirror to try and plan the future. How embarrassing. We need to be looking forward to a new, decarbonised aviation industry, serving the UK’s global trading and levelling up ambitions.

"We will be responding in depth, in due course."

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