Fury as woke council ‘bans fun' by scrapping popular airshow despite it making £60 MILLION for local economy
The four-day Bournemouth Air Festival, featuring the Red Arrows, has run for 16 years and attracts 600,000 fans.
2
2
But the cash-strapped local authority said it cannot afford £250,000 to stage it and also cited the carbon emissions the planes and the extra traffic produce as a reason for stopping it.
Bosses at the Lib Dem -run council, which has just hired a new chief executive on a salary of £220,000, are accused of being killjoys and lacking ambition.
Conservative councillor Phil Broadhead said: 'Saying we don't like planes, therefore we should ban the air festival for the sake of three or four days that brings millions to the local economy is a step too far.
'On that note, we shouldn't be doing anything that generates any carbon whatsoever.
'What we are doing is banning fun.'
Bournemouth Area Hospitality Association chairwoman Rosie Radwell said: 'It is a great shame because the air festival was a big boost for Bournemouth.
'It is a huge loss to the area.
'I don't think tourism is the top priority for this council.'
Asked about its impact on the climate she said: 'I don't think it was as bad as they said.
'And I don't think it's as bad as they say.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
16 minutes ago
- BBC News
Closed Much Wenlock 16th Century inn could be set to reopen
A closed 16th Century inn in Shropshire could be set to reopen after new plans were drawn application for a new premises license was submitted for the Inn at Harley, formerly the Plume of Feathers, off the A458 near Much venue was set to reopen two years ago and an Instagram post in May 2023 said it was in the early stages of renovation, offering nine en suite Harley View Limited, which owns public houses and bars, is hopeful in the application that the building could reopen. The proposal said the hours of operation would be from 07:00 to 01:30, with the supply of alcohol from 10:00 to 01: also want to be able to host live and recorded music indoors, as well as serving late-night consultation period has ended, with a decision to be made in due course by Shropshire Council. Follow BBC Shropshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
I have a £900,000 pension pot, how much income will I be able to get in retirement?
I have a defined contribution pension that I built up through my working life and apart from a few years at the start of my career, I've never had a final salary scheme. My pot is worth £900,000 and I am 59 and hope to retire in two years. How much retirement income can I safely expect to get from my pension pot - and if I died would my wife face inheritance tax on it? Rob Morgan, of Charles Stanley Direct, replies: When you decide to retire you'll have two main options for your pension pot. Keep investing and draw a regular or flexible income out or buy an annuity – guaranteed income for life from an insurance company. An annuity is the safer but less flexible option. Once you have bought it you can't reverse the decision, and for lots of people 61 is too soon for an annuity purchase unless they are especially risk averse. Annuity rates are lower when purchased at a younger age meaning you lock in a less favourable income for life, and you lose flexibility. However, to give you an idea, a 61-year-old today could secure an annuity income of 6.82 per cent on a level basis and 4.44 per cent on an inflation linked basis assuming a 5-year guarantee period and 50 per cent per cent spouse's pension. So that's £46,021 a year or £29,961 a year, respectively, on a £900,000 pot after taking the maximum tax-free cash of £225,000 which could also be used to generate an income on top. Drawdown is a riskier alternative, but it can keep your pot growing further than inflation levels and therefore give you a better outcome, especially if you plan on leaving the pension pot to your wife should she outlive you. Although you can build in a spouse's pension and other guarantees into an annuity, the flexibility of leaving all the remaining pot to her is potentially good financial planning. Plus, should you unfortunately die before 75 she can also take all the money out tax-free. The good news is there would be no inheritance tax (IHT) consequences of passing the pot to your wife. There is no IHT on assets left to spouses, so she can inherit the pot and enjoy the same retirement options with it. How much can you safely take out of your pension? That then leaves the question of how have much can you safely withdraw from the pension pot in drawdown. The 'classic' answer to this is about 4 per cent, which I would also extend to any tax-free cash you invest – ideally most of it in Isas to grow your money and pay income tax free. Using the '4 per cent rule' means you could 'safely' generate £36,000 a year before tax, rising with inflation. Why 4 per cent? It's a level thought be 'safe' enough for your money to last 30 years, based on historical stock and bond returns – even through relatively poor periods. However, arguably there is no such thing as a 'safe' rate. Asset class returns significantly lower than historical averages could present difficulties, especially in the event of a market crash in the early years of retirement – a concept known as 'sequence of returns risk'. This is why some advisers suggest 3-3.5 per cent as a more conservative level, or suggest dynamic strategies where withdrawals are based partly on market performance. It's also possible that you may be able to increase the rate of withdrawals if your investments do well. You will also need to consider your pattern of spending. Expenditure in retirement is often described as 'smile' shaped. Typically, the earlier years are more active, and costly, and later years less so, before spending rises again in the case of care needs. > Read Charles Stanley Direct's guide: How to combat drawdown risk It's not an all or nothing affair? It's also worth noting that you can mix and match an annuity and drawdown and you don't have to choose one or the other. Many people like to use an annuity to match their essential spending and use drawdown for top up or more discretionary spending – and accept that they may need to be flexible about withdrawals to help preserve the pot in the event of poor investment performance. Also factor in that your State Pension will begin at 67, which serves as a guaranteed income stream increasing at present by the triple lock, which is the higher of 2.5 per cent, inflation or average wage increase, in which case you can potentially take a bit more from your pension in the early years of retirement in the knowledge you can dial back once that comes on stream. > Is it worth deferring state pension? Read Charles Stanley Direct's guide Don't forget tax There's tax to consider too. Many people automatically take their maximum tax-free pension lump sum in one go, and in many circumstances this can be a good strategy. You can use the cash in the early years of retirement, pay off any mortgage or use it to make Isa contributions to maximise tax efficiency. However, there are alternative ways of drawing on the pot to consider, notably the UFPLS – or 'uncrystallised funds pension lump sum'. This involves slicing off part of your pension and leaving the rest untouched. Every time you take money from your pension pot as an UFPLS, 25 per cent of the amount is tax-free with tax payable at your highest marginal rate of income tax on the other 75 per cent, and this can sometimes be more tax efficient and therefore offer more income. How Charles Stanley Direct can help With lots of moving parts it is hard to decide which is the right course of action, so I would encourage you to speak to a financial professional to help weigh up your options and decide what is right in your circumstances. Charles Stanley Direct offers a free, no commitment, 15-minute call with a qualified professional to discuss your needs. You can then decide whether further financial coaching or more in-depth and specific financial advice would be useful. An adviser can look at all your assets, model different scenarios and help you understand the risks and opportunities around different courses of action, as well as potentially add significant value from a tax perspective.
BreakingNews.ie
an hour ago
- BreakingNews.ie
Lammy not accepting Iran's claims over enriched uranium
Foreign Secretary David Lammy says he does not accept Iran's claims that the country is enriching uranium for academic purposes. Representatives from the United Kingdom, Germany and France held talks with Iran last week to try to break the deadlock over the country's nuclear programme. Advertisement Tehran maintains it is open to diplomacy, though it recently suspended cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). A central concern for western powers was highlighted when the IAEA reported in May that Iran's stockpile of uranium enriched to 60% – just below weapons-grade level – had grown to more than 400kg. In a wide-ranging interview with The Guardian, Mr Lammy said: 'Its leaders cannot explain to me – and I've had many conversations with them – why they need 60% enriched uranium. 'If I went to Sellafield or Urenco in Cheshire, they haven't got anything more than 6%. The Iranians claim it's for academic use, but I don't accept that.' Advertisement Mr Lammy warned that Iran developing nuclear weapons could lead to an escalation of tensions in the Middle East. Israel and the United States carried our strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities in June. 'Many of your readers will have watched Oppenheimer and seen the fallout of (the US building an atomic bomb),' he said. 'So it's what (a nuclear Iran) might mean in terms of other countries in the neighbourhood who would desire one, too. And we would be very suddenly handing over to our children and grandchildren a world that had many more nuclear weapons in it than it has today.' Advertisement The Foreign Secretary said he had heard Israeli arguments in favour of regime change in Tehran, but did not believe that was behind the US decision to strike. The Tottenham MP added any decision to topple the government was one for the Iranian people, with his focus 'on what the UK can do to stop Iran becoming a nuclear power'. Last month, Mr Lammy suggested that Britain, France and Germany could 'snap back' on sanctions against Iran unless the country gets 'serious' about stepping back from its nuclear ambitions. He told the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee: 'Iran face even more pressure in the coming weeks because the E3 can snap back on our sanctions, and it's not just our sanctions, it's actually a UN mechanism that would impose dramatic sanctions on Iran across nearly every single front in its economy. Advertisement 'So they have a choice to make. It's a choice for them to make. 'I'm very clear about the choice they should make, but I'm also clear that the UK has a decision to make that could lead to far greater pain for the Iranian regime unless they get serious about the international desire to see them step back from their nuclear ambitions at this time.'
