Cliffsend Cliff Hanger or Beau's blunder

On the 28th April 2016, on the second anniversary of the closure of Manston, Cliffsend Village had their annual meeting. Riveroak were afforded 25 minutes to give a talk and answer some questions. Roughly 50 people attended to hear Tony Freudmann talk.

Afterwards Beau Webber posted the following to his many admirers in SMA.
The highlighted text is by this author.

"On Thursday 28th April Tony Freudmann of RiverOak (RO) addressed a very congenial crowd of around 50 people at Cliffsend Parish Hall. It was a very factual account, acknowledging that, whilst RO were initially very disappointed that the Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) with Thanet District Council (TDC) didn't go ahead, they accept that the possible risk perceived by TDC, (that of being involved in a multi-million pound project such as Manston Airport, despite the fact that RO were indemnity partners), was too much for a small district council to cope with.
RiverOak are now working with HM Planning Inspectorate (PINS) with regular meetings and discussions, all of which are minuted and can be read on the PINS website, to develop and validate RiverOak's plans for the Development Consent Order (DCO). Manston Airport is being considered as being of national importance, therefore attaching the title of NSIP (Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project) to the DCO. RO’s aim is to achieve acceptance of their DCO application by PINS by the end of 2016. Acceptance is not the end of the process but will be a big step towards securing the full DCO.
Specialist legal, planning and environmental teams were appointed in January and have made significant progress. However they are so far not being allowed access to the airport by the present owners, as is legally required. During their last conference call with the Planning Inspectorate RiverOak raised this matter. The Planning Inspectorate have power under the Planning Act 2008 to order site access.
RO anticipate the Manston project will over time involve capital expenditure in excess of £200Million as it will involve major reconstruction and additional work on the airport site, to enable Manston to have the capacity to handle ( an additional)* edited as this is what PINS will require) 10,000 freight movements a year, as well as improving the site access and infrastructure around Spitfire corner. RO will also liaise with both the Spitfire and RAF museums before final plans are in place. RO anticipate costs of at least £15Million to replace all the basic infrastructure removed by the present owners.
Very extensive environmental assessment will be undertaken to look into effects on air quality, noise pollution, water quality, wildlife, etc.
The scope of the environmental study is expected to provide the Isle of Thanet with the most thorough health check of the centre of the island that has ever been produced to date.
Employing local people will be a priority and involving educational programmes is part of the submission. Manston is anticipated to be roughly comparable with East Midlands Airport in the future, which is mostly freight but with passenger flights too. There the current figures are that the airport supports a total of 6,000 jobs on an annual turnover of approximately £100 Million.
RiverOak intend to hold pre-consultation(s) in June or July, with a full formal consultation to be held in the late summer. Local residents will have their chance to express opinions and these will be listened to and acted upon."

To date (nearly 2 years) neither TDC or the public have seen any detailed plans by Riveroak so this statement by Beau is either him winging it or he is privy to Tony Freudmann's plans however when this statement was discussed outside of the confines of their closed Facebook page a different story emerged.
Firstly Beau confirms he has no idea what Riveroaks plans are. His statement is based on listening to Freudmann for 25 minutes without taking notes. I'll leave the reader to decide whether the financial information inthe above is correct or not

Several questions from members concerned about the above statement were asked but answers were in short supply.

Readers might be wondering just why this is important. Well lets look at some facts and figures from the "roughly comparable East Midlands Airport"
Firstly EMA in 2015 handled just under 78000 flights which equates to just under 9 movements every hour with more during the day and less during the night (correct freight mainly comes in during the night) That is one movement every 7 minutes. And further as already explained the operation is 24/7 fortunately landing and takeoff isn't over Ramsgate.
Turnover in 2013 was £50M based on 78000 flights which equates to roughly £700 a landing. If Manston wants to achieve "roughly comparable" figures based on 12000 movements then they will be charging £4000 per plane. As John says this doesn't add up.
Then we have jobs EMA supports (not employs) 6000 jobs based on a 24/7 regime, based on 12000 movements that equates to under 1000 jobs and most of them would be ancillary not direct jobs.
Then we have the issue of money Beau talks about expenditure of £200M over time (?) however money doesn't grow on trees and turnover doesn't mean profit however lets do some sums Beau says turnover £100M on 78000 movements equates to £15M when you have the same costs and 12000 movements. Now thats not profit because all businesses have overheads. In 2014 EMA made £16.4M on a turnover of £50M which if you bring that back to 12000 movements they will make £2,55M so how will they have the money to invest up to £200M in infrastructure?

PS Collins and Smith have failed to attend court for the 11th time and are now committed to Crown Court to answer charges of theft and in smith's case assault as well.