Southend Council has responded to the recent media interest in the 2015 Southend Airshow and an announcement by its organisers that it will no longer be going ahead in Southend-on-Sea later this year.
The council have also refuted inaccurate suggestions in the Southend Echo that a £50,000 charge was being levied on the organisers for road closures.
Whilst road closures for previous airshows were administered by the Council, the majority of the work involved is carried out by external contractors and therefore the majority of any costs associated with this aspect of organising the event are payable to them and not the council.
Also, no detailed arrangements for road closures had been agreed or finalised and therefore no costs, to the council or external contractors, had been agreed with the organisers for the proposed 2015 event.
Graham Longley, Executive Councillor for Enterprise, Tourism and Economic Development, said: “We’re disappointed that the air show won’t be returning to Southend-on-Sea. We’re of course welcoming and supportive of events that bring visitors to the town and have supported the organisers with their proposals over the past two years.
“The high costs of running an event of this scale – including costs for policing, fire service assistance, coastguard, marshalling, closing roads and staging - are well known and are the main reason the Council decided in 2013 that it could no longer justify funding the event with council tax-payers’ money, at a time when we were having to make tough decisions about all of the services we provide due to millions of pounds of central Government cuts.
“As part of our work with the organisers we have been open about those costs in all of our conversations with the organisers. To be very clear, the majority of these costs are not costs charged by the council, but costs for other public services like the emergency services or external contractors that add up quickly for such a large scale event where safety and emergency planning are paramount.
“Suggestions, or resulting assumptions due to the inaccurate media coverage that the council were trying to profit from, or price the organisers out of the area are simply not correct.
“The more recent proposals to relocate the show to East Beach were sadly not workable due to concerns raised by the MoD, who own the neighbouring land and Foulness Island.
“Whilst it is sad that the show now looks unlikely to return to Southend-on-Sea in the near future, we will continue to consider and support any future proposals that may come forward.”
The council have also refuted inaccurate suggestions in the Southend Echo that a £50,000 charge was being levied on the organisers for road closures.
Whilst road closures for previous airshows were administered by the Council, the majority of the work involved is carried out by external contractors and therefore the majority of any costs associated with this aspect of organising the event are payable to them and not the council.
Also, no detailed arrangements for road closures had been agreed or finalised and therefore no costs, to the council or external contractors, had been agreed with the organisers for the proposed 2015 event.
Graham Longley, Executive Councillor for Enterprise, Tourism and Economic Development, said: “We’re disappointed that the air show won’t be returning to Southend-on-Sea. We’re of course welcoming and supportive of events that bring visitors to the town and have supported the organisers with their proposals over the past two years.
“The high costs of running an event of this scale – including costs for policing, fire service assistance, coastguard, marshalling, closing roads and staging - are well known and are the main reason the Council decided in 2013 that it could no longer justify funding the event with council tax-payers’ money, at a time when we were having to make tough decisions about all of the services we provide due to millions of pounds of central Government cuts.
“As part of our work with the organisers we have been open about those costs in all of our conversations with the organisers. To be very clear, the majority of these costs are not costs charged by the council, but costs for other public services like the emergency services or external contractors that add up quickly for such a large scale event where safety and emergency planning are paramount.
“Suggestions, or resulting assumptions due to the inaccurate media coverage that the council were trying to profit from, or price the organisers out of the area are simply not correct.
“The more recent proposals to relocate the show to East Beach were sadly not workable due to concerns raised by the MoD, who own the neighbouring land and Foulness Island.
“Whilst it is sad that the show now looks unlikely to return to Southend-on-Sea in the near future, we will continue to consider and support any future proposals that may come forward.”
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