Letter to the Editor: To and From the Airshow

For the last few years Eastbourne Borough Council have had an online survey for this event, partly around travel and the carbon footprint. As a spoiler only 3%, of the CO2, is the aircraft but well over 90% is ‘audience travel’. This year ‘Eastbourne Eco-Action’ have undertaken a more detailed travel survey, over the first three days, to understand how people get to the airshow and the reasons for their choices.

In terms of driving those who are local, especially on Thursday, did not use the expensive additional parking. For example most of those interviewed who were spending £40 on King Edwards parade or £26 at the Park and Ride were from out of town. Locals used on and off street parking. This was either free or certainly less than £10 a day. On Saturday there was still plenty of low cost parking for locals. So it really is a tax on tourists

There are no specific extra train services from Southern Railway. However there have been four extra carriages added to some trains, for Saturday, partly for the football at the Amex. The bigger concern is that on Sundays there are only two trains an hour from Hastings and Bexhill but they are within eight minutes of each other so there are big gaps. This does not encourage their use

Once out of the station, for those less mobile, there is a taxi rank but visitors had no obvious signage to the best buses. The Airbourne website suggests Service 3 between the train station and the Winter Garden.... “There will be an increased frequency of this service on Saturday and Sunday, but it will end at the usual times, not running after the fireworks display.” In reality none of the passengers at the bus stop were aware of extra buses and at the time I was there, the next bus was cancelled and the one after was showing as 40 minutes later. Perhaps a simple shuttle would be better.

For those catching the specially laid on buses at ‘Park and Ride’ the information could be improved. The Airbourne website says these buses are £5 per person, £2.50 for a child and £12 for a family. However some people wanted singles. You can buy a single. It is half the price but why not tell people before they come to encourage more usage?

Cycling has extra parking for Airbourne but at 13:00 on Saturday the one in Howard Square was completely empty. However on the seafront the existing cycle racks were completely full. Providing cycle parking in out of the way places, with little footfall, is never attractive to cyclists.

In the next few weeks there will be a more detailed analysis by Eastbourne Eco Action, based on the 130 surveys undertaken, and a blog will appear on their website with the results

Let’s hope that for 2026 if they really want people to “use public transport if you can” there is better co-ordination and planning.

Paul Humphreys

Chichester Close

Willingdon