To give a perspective as to why it's wrong to charge for Airbourne, it's useful to look at a little history. About 15 years ago there was a group in the town called the Eastbourne Marketing Group. Many local people were involved, as I was. The aim was to give Eastbourne an edge over other towns, through investing in and maximising our strengths. One of the initiatives that came from the group was to build an airshow around the annual visit of the Red Arrows. It was a brilliant idea, and here we are 15 years later with the sort of tourist attraction that is the envy of most towns our size.

At its best, Airbourne brings in up to 750,000 people into the town over a long weekend in August. These people spend a fortune (millions, literally) in the local tourist trade, in shops, pubs, clubs, hotels, restaurants, on the buses, in taxis etc. The event has always been paid for by the council and through sponsorship.

Airbourne is a massive 'shop window' for our town with all the TV companies filming here, the news bulletins broadcasting their shows direct from the seafront; radio and press interest is immense. It generates millions of pounds worth of future tourist business for the town, with people coming back to visit or stay, often out of season. It is very difficult to find an empty hotel bed in the town during Airbourne. It is, in short, a fantastic achievement for a town of our size to have a brand such as 'Airbourne' associated with it, generating good will, year after year, and from a commercial perspective it should be used to build an even bigger and better tourist trade.

So what should we do with such a success story? Continue it? Look for ways to make it grow and develop? Look for new sponsors? Or should we put barriers in place to make it more difficult for Eastbournians to attend, and start to break down this brand we've spent 15 years building up?

Unbelievably, that's what Eastbourne council wants to do. It will now cost £5 a day to see the show, per person. What a sad and ridiculous state of affairs. What a massive own goal. There isn't even a discount for kids.

Of course Airbourne isn't everyone's cup of tea – it's very noisy, and there are environmental issues. But the vast majority of people in the town love it, and believe it to be a good thing. The show always ends on the Sunday night with one of the community highlights of the year – the firework show from the end of the pier.

Thousands of local people enjoy the weekend, bringing their friends and family to our town to enjoy what Eastbourne can offer. Almost all visitors return to their own towns with a good impression of Eastbourne.

Airbourne doesn't come cheap and it's always a risk because if there's poor weather, the show, or parts of it get cancelled at late notice. But a bit of perspective is needed. The loss last year was £72,000. The equivalent of less than 1% of our council tax. This year the council tax went up by an inflation busting 3.8%.

The council also put in the budget this year for the first time a £90,000 pot of money for spending on councillors' hobby horses around the town – money which could easily be put into the Airbourne budget.

When I was on the council, it was put to us that Airbourne could be charged for; but the council I led rejected the idea. We considered what we get for the show in economic investment to the town is good value for money, and we were proud to advertise 'The best FREE seafront airshow in the World' – it was part of the success of the whole thing.

We would have been open to the idea of charging just for entry to the Western lawns. This could be controlled fairly easily, and in return for £1 per day, you could have got access to the ground based displays in there, and get a daily programme of the flying schedule. That would have raised quite a bit of money, without people feeling they were being ripped off. Also, it would have meant people weren't stopped from going onto their own seafront!

But the better way to go would be put more effort into finding a major sponsor, (or series of smaller sponsors).

Whatever happens it appears the council are planning a vastly smaller show this year anyway - their best case scenario is to sell 190,000 tickets – that's about a quarter of the potential turnout of the shows in the recent years. So the show will, at best be 25% as busy as usual, with the knock-on investment to other businesses in the town decreasing by 75%. All this from a council who said they'd invest in the economy on our town.

So enjoy Airbourne this year – let's hope it's not the last.

I suggest a quick U-turn would be in order from the council. When you've got something good – build on it, don't destroy it.

Prediction of the Week

Each week I will give a prediction for the week ahead – last week I got it right with my guess that Hillary Clinton would quite the race for US President by the end of the week – this week I reckon Lee will win 'The Apprentice'…

Have a good week!