Council chiefs have confirmed there are no plans to move the cancelled Sunderland Airshow to South Tyneside.
Sunderland City Council, last week, confirmed it would not be holding the world-famous Sunderland International Airshow in future as part of ambitions to make the council and city carbon neutral. Huge crowds had flocked to Seaburn and Roker for the annual event in the past, which was seen to give a major economic boost to local businesses and the city as a whole.
After being cancelled due to Covid-19 over the last three years, Sunderland City Council confirmed it was taking a “new approach” to events and that the airshow was not planned for 2023 or beyond. The announcement has been met with anger from some, with an online petition to “reinstate” the airshow attracting more than 1,270 signatures.
Read More: Sunderland Airshow axed for good over climate change as city aims to become carbon neutral
Tracey Dixon, leader of South Tyneside Council, has since dismissed rumours that the event could move up the coast to South Shields. Instead, she explained, the local authority will continue to focus on its own events programme for residents, including its popular summer concerts.
Coun Dixon said: “We are leading with regard to events, I don’t think there’s anywhere else in the region that does what we do with regard to our summer programme. It’s wonderful that people would think that South Tyneside could even consider taking the airshow on with it being such an international event.
“But we need to focus on what is right for the borough in South Tyneside and our summer events programme is something that we will be leading on and continuing.”
Coun Dixon, a ward councillor for Whitburn and Marsden, has worked in senior roles in the hospitality industry on Wearside and said she understood the scale of planning involved in the airshow. The council leader also acknowledged that taking on the airshow as a free event in South Tyneside would create additional financial pressures for the local authority.
Cllr Dixon continued: “One size does not fit all and the airshow was something that was decades in the planning for Sunderland. This isn’t something that they just picked up and did within a matter of months.
“For that to even be considered that would definitely need to be built into a medium-term element rather than ‘by next July we will have an airshow in South Tyneside’. I worked in Sunderland and I know the planning that goes behind all of these things.
“What we have is quite unique to South Tyneside and I think the Sunderland Airshow was something that was very unique to Sunderland. But for us in South Tyneside, we will be having our usual events programme and I don’t see any change in that moving forward.
“It benefits not just our businesses but our residents enjoy it and so do our visitors. If we’re building on our visitor economy, that is something that is crucial for us to continue.”
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