The Bognor Regis Herald: Town Council to consider Birdman Plea to retain 2017 grant for future event after cancellation this year: should they agree?

Jan Cosgrove
Jul 27, 2017 · 3 min read

The iconic Bognor Birdman Rally due to have been held this summer has been cancelled, as widely reported in the local press. Its organisers have revealed lack of funding as the cause.

READ THIS ARTICLE AND THEN VOTE: Should Birdman Continue? See end of this feature.

Now the Town Council’s Policy and Resources Committee is to consider an appeal from the event organisers on Monday evening. The organisers have have failed to attract the necessary sponsorship to run the 2017 event and want to retain the grant given for 2017 to roll over to next year.

The Birdman event has been run in Bognor over many years but in more recent times has suffered withdrawal of funding sources, and changing management. A new Committee was formed after a previous funder withdrew. Arun District Council was at one time a major supporter. In one year when it was not run in the town, Worthing staged at rival event.

Visitors to the event also have declined in numbers, once a national even a World-renowned event, it has lost drawing power.

Councillor Jan Cosgrove who is on the Committee: “With limited funds we have to be quite searching about the viability of events we support as a Council, and no one can accuse the Town Council of failing to give support over the years. My concern is that we have faced this before, a grant was rolled over in recent years for much the same reason. There is no lack of sympathy for this well-known event for which there is local fondness perhaps. But I want to know whether this is really, nearly 20 years into the 21st Century, sustainable any more. Has it run its course? There will be those who will say ‘we have to have Birdman’, very nice, but does it actually now do the things that were claimed for it in the past, such as bring in a lot of visitors and business to the Town and seafront.”

He said that hard decisions are needed and that he would need a lot of convincing. It would help if local people gave their honest views, devoid of Bognor nostalgia, before Monday evening.

One other problem, in his view, is the Pier from which the jumps are made. “It is in private hands, the owner has made it clear he sees it in terms of his local business and is not prepared to explore the wider community aspect. Its current state is symbolic of that, and I am not at all sure that the structure is now what we want in terms of staging one of the two annual major Visitor Events of Bognor’s Year. The Royal Hotel, which used to be the Hospitality Venue for Birdman, is now derelict and a right sight of a site.”

“I’m sorry to broach this, some die-hards will run round protesting it can be revived, yet again, but I do seriously ask if this is a Dead (sea) Horse we might be flogging, and whether the insistence on yet more life support is stopping us from looking at new and exciting ideas.”

POLL HERE

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