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Council votes to ground the Bournemouth Air Festival
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council is no longer actively looking to revive the popular air show.

The Bournemouth Air Festival, which has been wowing crowds with impressive aerial antics since 2008, has had its wings permanently clipped.
At a Cabinet meeting Wednesday 18 June, Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council voted unanimously to stop all work on bringing back the air show.
The Cabinet members voted in line with a recommendation by council staff to stop pursuing the air show and instead focus time and effort on new events.
The council had previously decided that 2024 was the final Air Festival to be funded and organised by the council, with future shows to be funded either by sponsorship or run by an external operator.
This was because the cost of putting on the show has escalated over the years; 2024’s air show required a council subsidy of around £260,000. It was estimated that a future air show would cost more than £400,000.
During the Cabinet meeting, it was revealed that sponsorship discussions have taken place but have not yielded sufficient funding to cover the event.
It was also confirmed that, while BCP had been in talks with a commercial operator interested in taking over the show, the American company had withdrawn from negotiations due to practical and political pressures.
At the meeting, councillors said that due to the rising cost of the show and financial problems facing BCP Council, including needing to make significant savings in the next year, the council could not afford the risk of funding the show in future.
Cabinet member Cllr Richard Herrett said: “There is no glee here, no desperation to rid the town of this event, but a really careful and considered approach to our finances. That means we have had to make difficult decisions.”
Cllr Andy Martin said he was a massive supporter of the air festival and described it as a “brilliant thing” but admitted that times had changed and the financial situation facing local councils was much different from 2008.
He added: “There are things I’d much rather spend money on then a two- or three-day air festival, in terms of the services that we [the council] provide.”
He said he’d prefer the money was spent on areas like libraries, education, and health and wellbeing.
Cllr Sandra Moore said: “This council needs to focus on essential services like SEND and adult and children social care, especially when faced with government funding cuts and rising needs.
“I simply could not justify spending our residents’ hard-earned cash on something that is very nice to have but not essential.”
The council remains open to offers of sponsorship or proposals by commercial operators, but are no longer actively pursuing them.
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