Current excavations at Manston Airport

We have received this official statement from Simon Mason, Principal Archaeological Officer at Kent County Council after we made representations to him. He is happy for us to publish this statement to clarify the situation:

“The work presently being undertaken at Manston is archaeological trial trenching to assess the potential impact on buried archaeology of development proposals at the site. This is being carried out by AOC Archaeology on behalf of the present owners of the site. The scheme of evaluation has been required by Thanet District Council on the advice of KCC Heritage Conservation and Historic England as part of the assessment to inform any decision on the present hybrid planning application. The trial trenching is being carried out in accordance with an agreed Written Scheme of Investigation and is targeted, in the main, at features that were revealed by a geophysical survey of the site in areas of the airport proposed for built development. I am monitoring the works on behalf of the District Council and these will be reported by AOC as part of the application process in due course. The works involve a substantial number of trial trenches in areas north of the runway and will take place over several weeks.”