A week ago, the much-anticipated return of Teesside Airshow was marred by traffic chaos.

A review into what happened to cause hours of gridlocked traffic, missed flights and disappointed aviation fans is currently underway.

Ahead of large scale public events, Safety Advisory Groups (SAGs) are established to help identify any potential planning issues.

SAGs are made up of representatives from local authorities, emergency services and other relevant bodies and meet regularly to review applications and advise on public safety.

Meetings and discussions are understood to have taken place between organisers and the SAG to discuss arrangements and share suggestions and advice ahead of the event.

The SAG is now conducting a review into the issues linked to the air show.

The Northern Echo asked all involved in SAG meetings ahead of the air show to comment on their involvement with the planning process.

Here’s what they said:

Skylive Air

The directors of Skylive Air, which organised the event, put out a statement the day after it took place.

Chris Petty and Steve Davies apologised to all affected and said: “We employed a professional traffic management company, have held numerous meetings over many months with Stockton and Darlington councils, the Safety Advisory Group, and the police.

“The traffic management plan in place was fully signed off by everyone.

“Clearly something went wrong and we will fully investigate to make sure this doesn’t happen again.

“We are looking in to how to give refunds to those who didn’t attend the show because of the delays.”

Darlington Borough Council

A spokesman said the council facilitated the SAG but said the advisory group did not have legal powers or responsibilities and was not empowered to approve or prohibit events from taking place.

He said: “Event organisers and others involved in the running of an event, retain the principal legal duties for ensuring public safety.”

DBC’s spokesman said event planning is an “iterative process” and where there remains disagreement between the SAG and organisers and there remains a genuine risk to the public, individual organisations on the SAG can act to resolve the issue.

However, he said: “Based on the final arrangements submitted to the SAG, there was no need for any organisation to consider this course of action in the case of the airshow.”

A statement from the council said the organiser’s plans were reviewed by the SAG but “something went badly wrong when it came to the way those plans were carried out by the event organiser and the traffic management company.”

Durham Constabulary

The Northern Echo understands that the force will actively police large-scale events such as the Durham Miners’ Gala or Lumiere, but the airshow did not require a similar response.

A Durham Constabulary spokesman said: “The airshow is a privately-run event, managed by an event company.

“We became aware of severe congestion on the roads surrounding the airport during Saturday’s event and sent officers to the scene to help alleviate those problems.

“We would welcome the opportunity for further talks with the event organisers to discuss the operation of their traffic management plan”.

Stockton Council

A council officer attended a SAG meeting in March and later processed the paperwork allowing for a temporary clearway/no stopping order to be established in relation to a stretch of road on the A67 within the council’s boundaries.

A spokesman for the council said: “This event was held in Darlington and organised by a private company, Skylive Air, which also employed a private company to handle the event’s traffic management.

“The event plan was reviewed by Darlington’s Independent Advisory Safety Group (ISAG). Of course, we fed into the ISAG process alongside a number of organisations and like the organiser has said, something has clearly gone wrong on the day.”

County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service

A spokesman for the CDDFRS said the event planning process met the service’s expectations and requirements for emergency response.

He added: “CDDFRS agreed response procedures with Teesside Airport Fire Service operational management to ensure we fully understood all events that were going to be taking place before, during and after the air show.”

He said all issues identified at the SAG meetings were resolved prior to the event taking place and that the fire service had an on-call duty officer at the airport for the duration of the event.

CDDFRS did not receive any emergency calls for incidents within the vicinity of the airport that day.

Teesside Airport

The airport’s Head of Operations attended the SAG meetings as an observer but the airport has no role in the SAG process.

A spokesman said: “The airport’s role was to ensure all airside activities and operations were managed safely via air traffic control.

“The airport had no involvement in the management or organisation of the event itself.”

The airport’s managing director is leading a full review of the air show, with the results expected to be published next week.