Dover district will get a stream of benefits from a reopened Manston Airport, councillors have been told.

Developers said that the revival would lead to massive boosts in terms of employment and tourism.

The £300-400 million investment is hoped to create tens of thousands of jobs in the long term with opportunities spilling over into Dover district.

The presentation of the plans were made at Dover District Council’s full council meeting.

It comes as a six-week public consultation on the plans came to an end on Sunday.

Tony Freudmann, director of the developers RiverOak Strategic Partners, told councillors: “This would be an airport with long haul capabilities bringing passengers from the United States.

“It can create all sorts of opportunities.

“More generally it would build a strategic relationship with the Port of Dover.”

Mr Freudmann listed direct benefits to Dover as:

• Long haul flights for passengers connecting to cruise ship departures from the Western Docks.
• Connections for business and leisure travellers to the KLM airline global network via Amsterdam Airport Schiphol
• A resident low cost carrier service offering regular flights for holiday destinations in Europe.
• Development of tourism programmes with Visit Kent and local tourism offices and major opportunities starting with the 2020 Open golf tournament in Sandwich in July 2020.
• The shipping of recycled aluminium and other material from recycled aircraft through the Port of Dover.

The Manston Airport consultative committee would also be reinstated and would now included representatives of Dover District Council plus parish councils and other groups.

The district council is one of the consultees, along with the councils at Thanet and Canterbury.

The plans will later come under the scrutiny of groups such as the Civil Aviation Authority.

The original Manston Airport closed in May 2014.

The new airport would cover 800 acres or 300 hectares and could take two million passengers a year.

Mr Freudmann explained that it was needed because of the lack of capacity at the London airports.

He told councillors: “Is there anywhere else in the South East where this can go? Absolutely not. Manston is the only place.

“It’s not often you get to design an airport from scratch but that’s what we are doing.”

Mr Freudmann added that the type of jobs being created would be for skilled workers and posts without zero hours and minimum wage conditions.

He said that airports for security reasons tried to avoid high turnovers of staff.

However, the present owners of the site called on RiverOak Strategic Partners to "come clean on plans to seize their land and build a 24/7 cargo hub".

Stone Hill Park - which wants to turn the site into 2,500 homes, business and leisure space - accused the company of failing to demonstrate its proposals are deliverable.

It said the business case put before the public is "fundamentally flawed and not credible", in a letter prepared by its planning consultants GVA.

It said a public consultation on the plans did not address the impact of noise and pollution on thousands of homes in Thanet and questioned where £300 million required for the investment would come from.

Spokesman Ray Mallon said: “Our submission to RiverOak Strategic Partnership has been carefully and thoroughly put together by GVA, one of the most reputable planning companies in the world.

“The letter and accompanying evidence takes away the emotion that is all too evident with the issue, which RSP have often preyed on, and instead line by line provides the facts and arguments as to why their cargo airport plan is ultimately doomed to fail."