Improved air monitoring at Manston

Except it's not.

It's making air monitoring worse by....removing the most advanced monitor at Manston.

The Kentmere Avenue monitor right at the end of the runway.

It's strange that this release plops out from Cheryl and Penny the day after I'd asked Penny for clarification on the data from the Kentmwere monitor and the flight logs.

And bizarrely this release is from last week announcing the changes that were made...in August - at the time of the night flight announcements.

It's pretty clear we're expected to swallow this flannel and bullshot along with the failures in monitoring at an airport that was slated for expansion through a mix of council and Infratil collusion.

And rank incompetence in expanding it on the water supply and just down the road from Heathrow and Ostend.

But I'm picky about being poisoned. Maybe you are too. Maybe even TDC's own staff and councillors are too.

Aviation fuel doesn't fall like stair rods under the plane does it - it drifts over a wide area like smog.

Why are monitors being removed from an airport. You'd be increasing them surely? Why has the mobile monitor after many promises from Richard Samuel and Brian White never appeared?

It can't be money. The bizarre night flights consultation that's delayed until the public anger subsides has a vote of £80k for the consultation that isn't even in the budget. Even for racks of monitors.

Why have the removed noise monitors never being replaced?

If you're picky aboput being poisoned drop Cheryl a line and ask her why the sudden announcement and what were the benzene readings over the last 5 years.

If as the release says the monitor was faulty then why wasn't it replaced.

And the part about only diffusion tubes being used at Heathrow is cobblers: as you'd expect electronic 24/7 monitoring like the Kentmere monitor is also used.

We seem to have lies and aviation fuel on the rates.

Which is quite a dangerous game for Richard and Brian and Sandy and Roger and Cheryl and Penny - the highest lung cancer rate in Kent doesn't happen from Scotch mist. And the Police take a dim view of a rising death rate and air monitor data being compromised.

It's called manslaughter.

Tomorrow: Kent Air Quality monitoring for Kent by not monitoring air quality in Kent.

They're good our civil servants aren't they.

Thank goodness the councillors are on top of all this handing out P45's or calling in the Police.

Failed. Failed. Failed.

Time for Change.


From: Cheryl Pendry [mailto:Cheryl.Pendry@thanet.gov.uk] Sent: 25 November 2009 15:36Subject: IMPROVEMENTS TO AIRPORT AIR QUALITY MONITORING

IMPROVEMENTS TO AIRPORT AIR QUALITY MONITORING

Improvements have been made to how air quality is monitored at Kent International Airport.

A new system is now being used to provide consistent, reliable and verifiable data, with which to monitor air quality throughout Thanet. Benzene diffusion tubes located in both Manston and Minster are being used to monitor levels. These tubes are checked monthly, with the results published on the Air Quality in Kent and Medway website at www.kentair.org.uk

The decision to use diffusion tubes was taken, following advice from Government air quality experts, as the system previously being used was a complex and sophisticated piece of equipment that was not appropriate for monitoring a small regional airport.

Advice was taken about how air quality is monitored at major airports, with Heathrow and Gatwick both using the diffusion tubes, rather than the continuous monitoring. The monthly diffusion tubes are also the accepted standard nationally for measuring the annual mean level of benzene, which is the measure that councils are obliged to record.

Nitrogen dioxide is still continuously measured from two sites in Manston and Ramsgate. Results from this monitoring shows that nitrogen dioxide was below the average mean objective between August 2008 and August 2009.

Benzene levels within Thanet, as measured through diffusion tubes, are well below the National Air Quality Objective, meaning that there is no issue regarding pollution with benzene.

Penny Button, Environmental Protection Manager, said: "We are confident that these changes will still provide a good level of air quality readings and certainly ones that are in line with the accepted standard nationally. When we looked into this and discovered that we were using a different way of monitoring air quality than Heathrow and Gatwick, which are major airports and have considerably more flights than we get here at Kent International Airport, it's clear that we needed to find a new way of monitoring in the future. Our investigations suggest that this way will be more reliable and I'm sure that's something that local people would welcome."

All air quality monitoring data from Thanet can be found at www.kentair.org.uk

ENDS


Cheryl PendryPress and Media ManagerThanet District Council www.thanet.gov.uk Tel: 01843 577 034Fax: 01843 295 343