It seems the wheels are coming off the council's wagon.

The Eastbourne Tennis week bombed last week. Parking still is nowhere near being sorted out 14 months after winning an election on the promise of doing so. And the Airbourne charging plan is causing uproar.

A few weeks ago I suggested that IF charging had to be considered, the council should only charge for the arena area on the Western Lawns at £1 per day.

But the council want to charge a fiver per person per day, although it's half price if you buy in advance through the Herald.

I've noticed from the coupon in the Herald (which I gather hardly anyone has used so far), that the tickets;
• Don't have a Child, Senior or other discount to encourage a wider audience
• Are not refundable (so if it rains, that's your bad luck)
• And you have to buy them for specific days (so six weeks before the event you have to decide which day you want to go)

Not very well though through then, is it?

What's really wrong about all this is that the council say they made a loss of £72,000 last year on the event, but this year they want to get an income of £183,000. So they want over a £100,000 profit to help balance the books.

This money won't be put to future events but will go into the corporate pot. Remember, they have rejected investing in a new Cultural Festival that could be a massive new event for the town.

The other scandal about the charge, is that local residents who have already paid for the show through the council tax, are expected to have to pay twice.

So, if the council continues to insist on charging, here's another suggestion that might help them.

ONLY CHARGE THE VISITORS !!

Yes! Simple, isn't it! This could be done through the 'residents' card'. It would probably mean they would have to scrap the charge for this year, and start it next year – but that will give them a chance to properly think it through (unlike this year).

So you have free admission to all local people and their families, and only charge those who are visiting the town.

Two caveats. Local people should still be able to buy tickets (at the cheaper rate of £2.50) for their visiting friends. Also, the firework display on Sunday evening has to remain free for all (as it's one of the community highlights of the year).

It would be better not to charge at all, so we can still advertise Airbourne as 'the biggest free seafront airshow in the world', and make the shortfall up through sponsorship, but if the council insist on charging, local people shouldn't have to pay twice.

Over to you EBC!

Have a great week.