BDB Pitmans acts for RiverOak Strategic Partners to secure future of Manston Airport
Angus Walker Partner
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Law firm BDB Pitmans has advised RiverOak Strategic Partners on its long-running plans that will see the redevelopment of Manston Airport in Kent.
The seven-year planning battle was determined when the Court of Appeal in May 2024 dismissed an application from a resident to appeal against the grant of the Development Consent Order (DCO) needed to begin works.
The DCO, granted in 2022 by the Department for Transport, remains in force with work expected to begin shortly to create a state-of-the-art air freight facility.
RiverOak Strategic Partners’ plans for Manston Airport include 19 wide-body stands, four narrow-body stands, eight business aviation hangers and three recycling hangars. Manston Airport expects to receive flights in 2027. Manston Airport was an air freight hub until 2014 when flights stopped.
RiverOak Strategic Partners was advised by Angus Walker, a partner in BDB Pitmans’ Planning & Infrastructure team. He said:
‘RiverOak made its first application in July 2018, with a DCO granted two years later. That DCO was challenged and redecided in 2022, with a subsequent further challenge of the Secretary of State’s decision.
‘That it has taken seven years to reintroduce air freight to Manston is emblematic of the challenges facing infrastructure schemes in the UK. Whilst the politics that surround infrastructure schemes cannot and should not be avoided, reform is needed to speed up their delivery given that they are so important to the economic future of the UK.’
Tony Freudmann, a director at RiverOak Strategic Partners and owners of Manston Airport said:
