Teesside Airshow… more like Teesside **** Show

Could anyone tell me if there were programmes or some sort of itinerary? The PA system was pretty poor, I didn't realise the Battle of Britain flight was in until I heard the Spitfires engine overhead. The Red Arrows were at their best though.
 
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Randy said:
Why was the outside lane of the A66 blocked? If it was how is that the fault of the airshow organisation? Surely that's the fault of idiot drivers who want to be at the front of the queue no matter what issues that causes other road users. You can see it every day with drivers of well know German brand cars darting off of the A19 southbound onto the parkway and ingelby turnoff at the last possible second.
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That wasn't the only issue - that was an excuse from the organisers to try to deflect blame.

Queues were from all approaches, Darlington via A67, Middleton St George & Middleton One Row as people tried to go around the A67, queues towards Yarm and a huge queue from the Airport Roundabout onto and backing up on the A66. Even without the A66 crash there would have still been issues from all other routes inbound.
 
It took me an hour to drive from yarm road to Sadberge on the A66, no accidents anywhere that I saw.

Traffic jams caused 100 % by bellends blocking the outside lane by waiting till the 100 yard marker to try to cut back into the slip road to the airport. Vvankers.
 
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Transitarmy said:
Could anyone tell me if there were programmes or some sort of itinerary? The PA system was pretty poor, I didn't realise the Battle of Britain flight was in until I heard the Spitfires engine overhead. The Red Arrows were at their best though.
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Yes there were programmes available which contained the timetable. Pretty sure I read somewhere that they weren’t publishing the timetable online therefore forcing people to buy a programme for £3.
 
We did 3.5 hours before we left the queue and tried to salvage the day 😂 what a complete unorganised farce. Hopefully refunds will be available as that was unacceptable.
 
Money grabbing event, why sell 20,000 tickets with no organisation in place ?
No car park stewarding ?
💩 organiser then passing the blame onto a crash on A66 ?
Those with unused tickets should be reimbursed, and offered discounted tickets next year 👍
 
Centralscrutinizer said:
The lack of use of the station at Teesside airport is a running joke, absolutely shocking lack of thought and utilisation of a railway line that goes right past the airport. Not just for today but for general use :cautious:
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I believe its footfall makes it the least used station in England!
Anyway who organised the show yesterday....they should be out front telling people what went wrong and putting it right for next year or no one will.go
 
Just reading through some of the comments, it hits you what a sorry state of affairs we are really in. People lambasted, and ridiculed , on daring to question the absolutely shambolic organisation of a local event that was 5 years in the planning.
As a country, I think this event highlights us perfectly, we literally couldn’t organise an air show at an airport but be quiet it’s your fault for not leaving on Friday morning to get there.
Well done to all those volunteers and enthusiasts who had various stations there though, I especially enjoyed a young local guy called Ben Houchen selling his magic beans.
 
This was very much Ben Houchen's brainchild and he was told by events organisers from both Stockton and Darlington council that the road system, parking provision, lack of alternatives to car travel and that the previous incarnations of the Air Show that they'd worked on had to be stopped due to the traffic issues they caused.

In this instance Houchen political persuasion isn't relevant what matters is that an opportunity to organise properly an event that could and should have been a something that thousands enjoyed has been tarnished and ruined by the failure of those involved to listen, heed advice and plan accordingly.

Chris Petty 'the Organiser' is a Houchen stooge and has been involved in several questionable and dubious non tendered contract awards direct from the mayors office itself, Cornerstone and Close Protection Services are two that spring to mind, it's telling and significant that they need to discuss possible refunds with Ben Houchen, why do they need his input if he's not involved, why has he apologised instead of doing what any independent individual would do and criticise the lack of organisation, why was he Cc'd into all correspondence relating to the event and why does it seem people like Chris Petty, whose company's background and expertise are in IT support are being awarded events and security contracts ? Maybe a look at Houchen's donors might be the answer ?

The victim of our own success line is the worst, when you are advised that 20k attendance is impossible to manage even with provision to have a park and ride scheme, plus additional rail and bus options and you go ahead and sell those tickets without putting those measures in place, that's stupidity, avarice and mismanagement. Pre-bought tickets will have made additional money in interest and for every day refunds take to be triggered that's more money being made, it's like the 5k arena in Redcar, no one is faulting ambition but ambition without infrastructure and proper planning is irresponsible and ego fuelled insanity.
 
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Almost bought tickets for this but after reading the comments from yesterday I’m glad I didn’t bother.

Saw the red arrows a couple of times from my garden. Were there only 7 instead of the usual 9?
 
I was talking to a family that travelled down from Scotland. They bought their tickets 2 years ago and have since moved to the borders. They set off early yesterday morning only to spend the whole day grid locked on the A66. They finally got out of their cars to watch the Red Arrows flying overhead at 2.45pm, still in the traffic jam.
At this point they thought it pointless to continue queuing and gave up.
The organisers had years to work out a plan. They set a capacity and knew the size of the crowd. So, therefore it was not exceptional demand. A crowd size less than the Killers, less than a big Boro game. They totally mismanaged the event and let an awful lot of people down.
 
I attended as part of the car show .Set off at 08:30, left the A66 at 08:50, and was in the show field at 09:00. Several cars in front were all visitors arriving early to park up and await the gates opening.
The show itself was ok and lack of aircraft was the biggest disappointment but hopefully they can learn from this and improve.
On leaving, the classic cars started queuing to get out about 17:45 and it took about 15 minutes to get back on a free flowing A66 back towards Boro.
 
American_Mary said:
This was very much Ben Houchen's brainchild and he was told by events organisers for both Stockton and Darlington council that the road system, parking provision, lack of alternatives to car travel and that the previous incarnations that they'd worked on had been stopped due to traffic issues it caused.

In this instance Houchen political persuasion isn't relevant what matters is that an opportunity to organise properly an event that could and should have been a something that thousands enjoyed has been tarnished and ruined by the failure of those involved to listen, heed advice and plan accordingly.

Chris Petty 'the Organiser' is a Houchen stooge and has been involved in several questionable and dubious non tendered contract awards direct from the mayors office itself, Cornerstone and Close Protection Services are two that spring to mind, it's telling and significant that they need to discuss possible refunds with Ben Houchen, why do they need his input if he's not involved, why has he apologised instead of doing what any independent individual would do and criticise the lack of organisation, why was he Cc'd into all correspondence relating to the event and why does it seem people like Chris Petty, whose company's background and expertise are in IT support being awarded events and security contracts ? Maybe a look at Houchen's donors might be the answer ?

The victim of our own success line is the worst, when you are advised that 20k attendance is impossible to manage even with provision to have a park and ride scheme, plus additional rail and bus options and you go ahead and sell those tickets without putting those measures in place, that's stupidity, avarice and mismanagement. Pre-bought tickets will have made additional money in interest and for every day refunds take to be triggered that's more money being made, it's like the 5k arena in Redcar, no one is faulting ambition but ambition without infrastructure and proper planning is irresponsible and ego fuelled insanity.
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Excellent post, bravo sir.
 
I think the only thing missing from AM's post on the relationship between Petty & Houchen is the fact that Petty is a donor to Houchen. Perhaps bigger dinners thn Sambrook Houchen could use that £ to refund his constituents. 1655029683674.png
 
Decent_Left said:
I think the only thing missing from AM's post on the relationship between Petty & Houchen is the fact that Petty is a donor to Houchen. Perhaps bigger dinners thn Sambrook Houchen could use that £ to refund his constituents.
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American_Mary said:
why does it seem people like Chris Petty, whose company's background and expertise are in IT support are being awarded events and security contracts ? Maybe a look at Houchen's donors might be the answer ?
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Thanks DL, I think without being explicit I did allude to the connection between Petty's contributions to Houchen's campaigns and the seemingly positive effect having Petty as a director has on the chances of untendered contract award from the Mayoral Office. I think sometimes it's better to draw the dots and let others connect them 👍
 
Redlips said:
Should have opened Teesside airport train station and had shuttles from all over Teesside, similar to how the tall ships operated in Hartlepool.
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Hmm. I'm sure the unions would have supported some extra work without extra pay.
Archiestephens_elbow said:
Pork barrel ben to blame
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Brilliant! Exactly how was he responsible for independent organisers, the amount of tickets issued, the route people chose and the time they set off?
 
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