THE future of Branscombe Charity Air Day and Classic Car Show is in jeopardy after organisers made a loss of �8,000. Only 2,500 people attended the event on Saturday, which in previous years has attracted up to 10,000 visitors. Airfield owner David Hayman

THE future of Branscombe Charity Air Day and Classic Car Show is in jeopardy after organisers made a loss of �8,000.

Only 2,500 people attended the event on Saturday, which in previous years has attracted up to 10,000 visitors.

Airfield owner David Hayman made a personal loss of thousands of pounds and the two charities, Children's Hospice South West and the Royal British Legion, which were meant to benefit will receive nothing.

Mr Hayman said: "We will have to have a chat with the charities and see what they think. "We work quite closely with Children's Hospice South West, which is a brilliant charity and we still want to do something for them."

This is the first time the event has taken place in three years, and a first for Mr Hayman, who inherited the air day from Branscombe airfield's previous owner.

He believes there are a number of factors which contributed to this year's low footfall:

"Maybe it just lost its momentum. I changed the traditional day from Sunday to Saturday and there was a clash with quite a few other events in the area.

"And it might be to do with people not wanting to spend too much during the recession."

Mr Hayman has not yet decided if he will cancel the air day but says he will make the difficult decision in the "sooner rather than later".

He added: "I'm massively disappointed as I was trying to replicate what had happened in previous years.

"It is a personal risk. If we do run it again it will have to be much more focused and we will have to see how we can get more people through the doors."

However on the bright side Mr Hayman said the air day was a success for the people who did attend.

He said: "Everybody had a great time and we had an awful lot of email traffic saying what a fantastic event it was.