Town at full throttle for airshow

A French Air Force Mirage 2000 will fly at the show for the first time

More than 800,000 people are expected to flock to an East Sussex seaside town as it holds its 14th airshow.

The star of Eastbourne Airbourne, which runs for four days, is the Mirage 2000 being displayed at the show for the first time by the French Air Force.

Eastbourne Green Party has renewed its call for the show to be grounded, saying its economic value to the town is exaggerated by the borough council.

The council said independent research showed £30m was spent during the event.

Main sponsor

"We know from monitoring our website traffic that interest in Airbourne is at an all-time high," said Eastbourne council's tourism spokesman, councillor David Elkin.

"We look forward to a busy week for our economy."

The Greens called for Airbourne to be scrapped when its main sponsor, the Civil Service Motoring Association (CSMA), pulled out.

They claimed the expiry of CSMA's six-year contract was a "£60,000 body blow".

The event now has nine new sponsors, including Eastbourne Arndale Centre and Eastbourne and District Chamber of Commerce.

Repeat business

"Yet again the Greens have got it wrong. With nine key sponsors backing the event this year, Airbourne has achieved its best sponsorship target yet," said Mr Elkin.

"We simply cannot afford to turn away the 12% of Airbourne spectators who are visiting Eastbourne for the very first time - with high repeat business this is key in developing our future tourism industry."

The airshow's future is being reviewed by the council's Scrutiny Committee, which is due to report in September.

The free event gets under way on Eastbourne seafront on Thursday and ends on Sunday with a twilight flypast by a Spitfire and Harrier jet followed by a firework display on the pier.

A queuing system for train passengers is in operation at the town's railway station between 1600 BST and 2000 BST during the four days, meaning no vehicle access to the station in Ashford Road.