The leader of Great Yarmouth Borough Council has said the town’s first air show “went very well”.

Great Yarmouth Mercury: The Haven Gt Yarmouth 2018 Air Show.Picture: Nick ButcherThe Haven Gt Yarmouth 2018 Air Show.Picture: Nick Butcher (Image: Archant © 2018)

Graham Plant made his positive remarks as some seafront traders reported that business did not live up to expectation.

Around 180,000 people visited the weekend show, which was organised by the Greater Yarmouth Tourism and Business Improvement Area and saw no cost to the taxpayer.

Mr Plant said: “From all reports it went very well. The road management worked and the numbers of people who visited was as expected, so from that point of view I think it was a great success.

“Traffic management was taken care of by the BID and that worked brilliantly.

“A lot of forethought and planning went into it. We had to deal with everything the police threw at us with as far as protection of the public is concerned, and we had no issues at all. “And the actual show itself was fantastic, the beach was chock-a-block in Gorleston and Yarmouth.

“We need to have it all fed back in so we understand if some of it was over-engineeered or under-engineered.”

However, some seafront traders said business was not as good as anticipated.

Trevor Atham, manager of Rod’s Seafood, said: “We did better than normal but we were expecting to do twice as well.

“What I don’t understand is why they didn’t have the Red Arrows at the end. After they had gone, around 60 or 70pc of people left.

“But the council did a great job with the litter and the beach was kept really clean.”

Robert Trani, owner of Anchor Cafe, said: “We had our best day ever but we were expecting more, based off what we heard from when Lowestoft did it - we’ve had to bin a lot of chips.

“I think the parking didn’t make sense, because a ticket cost more than a fine. But the litter was collected brilliantly.”

Phillip Charalambous, partner at The Smuggler’s Cove, said: “It was like a normal summer’s weekend for us, but we didn’t have any expectations. There was obviously a lot of footfall and I think it would be great if they did it again.”