It's hard to describe how quiet Manston has been for the last few weeks. Anyone who lives in the area will tell you that there has been virtually nothing apart from the training flights by Oasis, which have been irritating the locals in droves. Looks like the airport has died (a bit like this bulletin board). How much longer will Infratil put up with the losses they must be making on this venture?
They had a public referendum on Lydd a couple of weeks ago. Around 30% of people voted and they voted against expansion. I don't know whether this will carry any weight with the planners who are imminently due to make a decision on the proposed runway extension and new terminal plans. As I understand it, they can only reject things on planning grounds, and the owners at Lydd have provided all of the information required e.g. the environmental impact assessment, the economic impact report, risk assessment. None of these studies has uncovered any substantive reason not to permit expansion. The protesters now seem to be relying on arguments about the danger of a plane crashing into Dungeness nuclear power station. However, the power station was shut down last month and so this argument seems a bit thin (although it will take many years to decommission the reactor).
Interestingly, the vote in Lydd itself was very close with about 55% of people voting for expansion and 45% against. I think the airport plan has a lot of support in the immediate vicinity because of the employment it will create. It was New Romney where they voted overwhelmingly against expansion, with 23% for expansion and 77% against.
However, the thing that stuck out to me was that only 10,000 people were eligible to vote in this referendum. This shows how sparsely populated it is around Lydd. Only 2204 people voted against the expansion. Presumably, this is why the local MP is in favour of the project. He probably figures that most of those votes wouldn't have gone to him anyway, and he'll pick up votes from the majority of his constituents living further away who support the expansion plans. In my humble opinion, the referendum will make no difference. Lydd is still likely to get the green light. They're just waiting until the local elections are out of the way.