Sunderland residents and business owners have been left ‘saddened’ after council bosses axed the city’s popular air show.
Sunderland Council announced on Monday (October 17) that it has no plans to host the air show in the future, citing its requirement to become carbon neutral by 2040.
The air show had been cancelled due to Covid over the last three years, but is now unlikely to ever return after the shock announcement.
Read more: 15 pictures of Sunderland Airshow through the years as event axed for good
Some residents were left ‘disappointed’ on Tuesday (October 18), while others sympathised with the council’s decision to ‘look to the future’.
Speaking to the Northern Echo, Dave Lee of Sunderland, who had only just heard the news of the cancellation, said: “It’s sad to see it go, it really put Sunderland on the map.
“They’ve just started to get Seaburn tidied up and it’ll be a miss.”
However Irene, above, also from Sunderland, supported the cancellation saying she believed it was the ‘right thing’ for the council to do.
Irene said: “I used to come down and it was really good but I think it’s the right thing to do.
“You’ve got shows like David Attenborough on the telly and the kids are really aware, and it’ll only start protests if it keeps going which would ruin it, so I think it’s the right thing.”
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Meanwhile, married couple Bob and Vera Skea from Washington, said they felt it was a shame the air show was gone, but understood why the council had made the decision. They said: “It’s shame it’s gone. It’s a sign of the times because the council has to cut its carbon footprint.”
“We came down with the grandkids a couple of times. You had all the things that were happening along the top and it was a really good day out, it was always packed busy.
“It’s a shame for the businesses too because they’re going to lose a lot of business.”
And business owners on Seaburn’s sea front expressed concern over the impact the loss would have on them.
Erin and Kelly, managers of the Seaburn Inn, said: “It’ll have a massive impact on us. We’re yet to have an airshow since we opened and we’d started preparing last year before they cancelled it.
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“We were expecting huge demand with people travelling from across the river and further afield to come for the airshow.”
Speaking on the cancellation yesterday, Sunderland Council’s Labour Leader Graeme Miller said: “Our residents have told us that they want to see new and different events, and ones that they themselves can get involved in.
"Residents have identified the environment as one of their top concerns and both the council and the city have committed to tackling the global climate emergency by reducing carbon emissions. This makes it all the harder to justify events such as the airshow, which generate large amounts of carbon, going ahead in the future.”
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