I have been interested to read in the last two editions of the Star that some people in Farnborough feel overlooked or somehow cheated because they did not receive any free tickets for the Airshow, when we have all been greatly inconvenienced by it while apparently gaining nothing at all.

I hope that I will not offend anyone here by admitting that I had to smile at their belief that any of us had received anything at all, other than a week of traffic misery and the inability to get to or from ones home to work, or to the doctors, or the shops or the school or the hospital in reasonable time.

The truth is, we have all been shafted once again as we are every two years, whilst a small minority make huge profits, and maybe (just maybe) someone, somewhere gets some freebies.

If they do I do not know who they are, but I certainly did not receive or even hear of any tickets being handed out, nor have I met anyone else who has.

If anyone has in fact received any free tickets for traffic inconvenience, perhaps they could contribute to this discussion and explain why some should when others do not.

Time for a reality check folks. Any freebies will not come to the likes of us, but we did pay an exorbitant rate of £20 for a table at the Swan public house, and still had to pay £5 on top just to get through the gate to get to our pre-booked table.

Nothing like a good old British whinge!

Paul Grant, Southampton Street, Farnborough

Kathryn Bellamy of Farnborough International Ltd comments: I can confirm that as an innovation in 2008, we gave out free tickets for the public days of the airshow, as a gesture of thanks to householders living in the area who are most inconvenienced by the temporary traffic flow system during the show.

We distributed just over 700 tickets to just over 350 households in the following roads: Church Road West, Cross Street, Netley Street and Park Road.

We have received some really nice letters from families who received the tickets and were able to come to the show, so it is certainly something that we would look to repeat at the next show, hopefully working with local residents to ensure that people who are inconvenienced by the one-way system are included and recognised by the airshow organisers.

We do welcome people’s feedback, so if local residents would like to get in touch with us, we would like to hear their thoughts.
Please email the show organisers at: enquiries@farnborough.com

On behalf of everyone at Farnborough International Limited, I would like to thank everyone in the area for their fantastic support of the Airshow and for helping us to make a really special 60th anniversary show for all our visitors.

Kathryn Bellamy, Head of Communications, Farnborough International Limited