The two companies involved in a tussle over the Manston airport site have set out their plans to county councillors.

Owners of the Thanet site renamed Stone Hill Park and representatives of rival company River Oak Strategic Partners, which wants to re-open Manston as a cargo airport, were brought together for the first time to press their case at a meeting at County Hall.

Each gave a presentation to the all-party economic development cabinet committee - outlining how their proposals would boost the economy and help the wider regeneration of East Kent.

There was little new information from either side, however. Much of a low key debate centred on claims and counter-claims about how many jobs the two proposals would lead to and how they would benefit the local economy.

Angela Schembri, a planning consultant for River Oak, which is pursuing a Development Consent Order to acquire the site, spoke of “significant concerns” about Thanet Council’s local plan for the area involving at least 2,500 homes on the site.

She said:

“It is not what the community wants and there has been a massive growth in support for the airport and the contribution that it could make on the economic and social side.

“It would be an essential catalyst in the regeneration of the local area and east Kent.”

However, a claim that a cargo business had the capacity to create 30,000 jobs up to 2020 was questioned.

Stone Hill Park representative Louise Congdon, a consultant with York Aviation, said:

“It is simply not credible to say that within a year, Manston would become the third largest freight hub.”

She said the Department of Transport’s own most recent forecasts suggested there would be no growth in the freight cargo sector, and both East Midlands Airport and Stansted already had spare freight capacity.

Asked about the number of HGVs that would come in and out of the site were it to be an airport, River Oak chief Tony Freudman acknowledged there would be an increase but a modest one.

He said that a worst case scenario would see lorry numbers rise daily from 36 to 41 east bound and from 26 to 43 west bound by 2039.

Stone Hill planning consultant Nick Alston told Councillors that its scheme was consistent with the authority’s housing strategy.

“It is in line with the emerging local plan and it is a completely sustainable scheme," he said. "It would protect 500 acres of greenfield land that would be otherwise be developed if Manston was not brought forward for housing.”

The future of Manston is expected to on two key factors: whether RSP are successful in obtaining a Development Consent Order and whether Thanet council’s Local Plan - which now earmarks the airfield for housing and mixed-use development - is agreed.

The council could face government intervention on its local plan after the communities secretary of state Sajid Javid included it in a list of 15 councils that he claimed were dragging their feet over their plans.

Manston airport had nearly 150 exployees when it closed in 2014, and lost more than £100 million during 16 years of private ownership, according to a Kent County Council report in 2015.