The organisers had an obligation (to all those people that had paid to support the event, and travelled incredible distances, at considerable expense) to ensure that there was somewhere decent enough to park !!!!

Imagine that I drive to Wimbledon to watch tennis, and I sit on centre court waiting for Andy Murray to appear, all of a sudden the heavens open and they can’t play. In this situation I accept that there is not a great deal that anyone (not even RIAT – lol) can do to influence proceedings. However, lets assume that I drive to Wimbeldon, the weather is perfect for Tennis, but the match gets cancelled because I am unable to park my car (because the car park is flooded and it had been tipping it down since Wednesday). In this scenario I believe that I have a right to be hacked off (especially when it’s cost me £300), and someone could have told me it before I set off.

Notwithstanding this, what bothers me most about your latest post is the following “in light of what has happened this year, there are going to be serious contingency plans drawn up”

along with “Tim Prince and the rest of his staff, as well as many consultants will look at further contigency plans next year”

Which suggests that there were no contingency plans for extreme wet weather (or what they did have was woefully inadequate).

I accept that cancelling the event was the right thing to do considering the precise circumstances surrounding the event last weekend. Equally, I have no doubt in my mind that everybody worked their socks off in order to try and stage the event.

My argument however is this, ‘better’ decisions (and I’m not simply referring to cancelling the event) could have been made ‘quicker’ and contingency plans invoked ‘earlier’ than what they were. In that respect alone, the RIAT organisers have to take some responsibility !!!

Out of interest, when exactly did the 50,000 tons of hardcore arrive ? why did the metal grids only stretch to about 200 yards from the entrance of the car park ?, and why were there several stacks of metal grids simply piled up by the gate at the entrance ?

Planning an event should start with ‘car parking’ upward rather than F-16 down. After all, if you can’t get people through the door, then there is no event.

I have to agree with all of what MarkB2908 has said.

It is not credible that bearing in mind the UK weather and the history of mud at outdoor events in the Uk that there was not a contingency in place for this event. It seems RIAT has been lucky to get away with it in previous year.

Of course everyone has lost out, the volunteers, participants, me (300 quid from Sweden), the bloke next to me on the aircraft with his young son (500 quid) and hundreds more. Most of all the Benevolent Fund has lost out. With hard times coming in the world I won’t be there next year nor will that bloke on the plane so the fund won’t get our money and why … no contingency. We all accepted there was no choice but Tim Prince should not have been in the position where he had to make that choice.