These petitions are well known in East Kent and are rapidly losing credibility. None of the signatories, whether online or on paper have been independently verified, and anyone with an ounce of common sense knows how such things can be altered to suit the needs of a lobby group. The only proven survey was taken by the council which showed a 2:1 opposition to night flights. The reality is probably that the local population has little interest in Manston Airport, as evidenced by it's poor economic performance when it was open. The core group of activists looks to be a couple of hundred people, as this is the number who turn up to the various rallies. A local schoolteacher is standing for parliamentary election as candidate for the "Manston Independent Party". It will be interesting to see how many votes she gets.