THOUSANDS of drivers were stuck in 10-mile traffic queues at the end of the most successful ever Bournemouth Air Festival.

The jams formed despite organisers’ efforts to encourage people to leave at staggered times.

There were hold-ups on the A338 Spur Road between Blackwater junction and Ashley Heath until around 10pm, while jams continued on the Southampton-bound A31 past 10.30pm.

Sunday’s events had drawn an estimated 400,000 people to the resort.

Business consultant Tim Gurney, who visited the town for the weekend, said it took him an hour and 45 minutes to travel from the Springbourne roundabout to Ashley Heath.

His journey back to Bristol took him four hours and 20 minutes after he ran into traffic leaving the Dorset Steam Fair.

He said the authorities should consider turning one lane of the southbound A338 into a northbound route after the air festival. He pointed out that similar measures are in place at Silver- stone following Grand Prix events.

“I visit Bournemouth frequently and love the town but for a lot of people their lasting memory is of a damn good day out that has maybe been spoiled,” he said.

Jon Weaver, director of the fes-tival, said efforts had been made to stagger visitors’ departure times.

“In the last few years we have introduced the Night Air flying, music and fireworks on Friday and Saturday nights. This has been successful in effectively staggering when visitors leave, easing the traffic exiting the town,” he said.

“On Sunday, our programme runs until 5.30pm and we clearly encourage people to take their time when leaving or to stay on and enjoy the atmosphere.

“For the next three years the festival will be before the bank holiday weekend so shouldn’t coincide with other big local events.”

Bournemouth West MP Conor Burns said there was little that could be done to avoid hold-ups. He said the delays should be “offset against probably the best Air Festival ever, with record numbers of visitors”.

“When you’ve got 1.4million visitors to Bournemouth over four days, then there are going to be difficulties with that,” he said.

Two hour wait for park-and-ride

AN ESTIMATED 400 people waited two hours to get into Bournemouth from the park-and-ride set up at Redhill on Saturday.

It was the busiest day of the event, with crowds hitting a record 448,000.

Roads in the town were log-jammed, with bus companies reporting delays of up to an hour.

Park-and-ride user Jill Keast, who told the Daily Echo she had been queuing for over an hour, said: “They’ve taken our money and dumped us in a queue.”

Peter Pritchard – who had travelled to the air festival from Farnborough, Hampshire – said he had only seen two buses make pick-ups in the hour he’d been waiting.

Air festival director Jon Weaver said: “This weekend was our busiest Bournemouth Air Festival ever. For a short period of time there were a number of people arriving at once to the park-and-ride in Redhill that created a backlog. The park-and-ride team worked hard to minimise the inconvenience to festival goers during this busy time.”