The event – set to take place in July – is said to be worth £250,000 and attract thousands of people to the town.

Funding is in place and officials are meeting tomorrow (Friday) to make final health and safety checks.

The annual event, which would have celebrated its 30th anniversary in Bognor this year, had to be cancelled after the end of the pier was demolished.

Organisers of the event, in which fancy-dressed flyers mix with aeronautical extroverts to see who can "fly" the furthest distance from the pier, met with Worthing council chief executive Ian Lowrie and town centre traders' representatives last Wednesday.

Sharon Clarke, manager of Worthing Town Centre Initiative, confirmed the £25,000-£30,000 needed to host the event had been secured.

"The finance is sorted," said Mrs Clarke. "It looks very promising.

It's just making sure we can get the proper risk assessment done in time. We are very hopeful."

Mrs Clarke will meet with council health and safety officials on Worthing Pier tomorrow morning to talk through the risk assessment – the final hurdle before the competition gets fully off the ground.

If the event is given the green light, the organisers will have to go into overdrive to get everything ready for the only weekend that the council, the police and the tide will allow – July 6.

Brighton had expressed interest in hosting the competition. Last week, Worthing Borough Council's cabinet member for resources, Paul Yallop, had said: "I know Brighton are looking at it, so if we do want it we will have to move quite quickly."

Derek Trotman, a volunteer who has helped run the event for 15 years, said last week's meeting was "very positive" and added the competition could be worth £250,000 to the town.

"It brings a lot of people into the town for local businesses to make some money as well.

"We just have to tie up a few odds and ends about the risk.

"If it is going to happen, we have really got to go some to make it happen because there's only a few weeks until then.

"I can't see there's going to be a problem on Friday.

"It will be all systems go from that point and it will need to be if we are going to get it ready for that date."

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