Beach assault goes ahead despite last- minute hitch
An eleventh- hour hitch almost struck the Scottish Airshow last Thursday, when it emerged that Police Scotland had objected to an element of a display scheduled for Saturday morning.
South Ayrshire Council brought together the event organisers and the police, over plans to have a Royal Navy display on the beach.
Ayrshire Post chief reporter Stephen Houston attended the meeting.
It was billed as a beach assault by Royal Marine Commandos, the UK’s elite amphibious force.
In reality the real dog- fight was over a fine wooden table in County Hall, complete with sniping remarks and barbed putdowns on both sides.
In the blue corner sat Chief Superintendent Gillian MacDonald, the no- nonsense supreme commander of Ayrshire’s police division, her Supt Neil Kerr and force legal eagle Jan Spy.
Seeing red in the red corner were the allied commanders of the Scottish Air Show, all bristling with indignation.
Director Doug McLean and his event manager henchman Danny Anderson sat alongside another director Heather Anderson ( Danny’s wife) and pyrotechnics ace Geoff Crow.
The eleventh- hour scene was a special South Ayrshire licensing board arranged at short notice for 3pm on Thursday.
At stake was whether the star ground attraction of the show would actually go ahead on Ayr beach.
It was sparked by an angry salvo from police, insisting they knew nothing of plans to create mock merry- Hell on the sand with loud explosions, automatic gunfire and simulated death as Somalian pirates breathed their last.
The sound effects were such that even noise of bullets thudding into the sand would be heard.
Police were worried that it might cause panic – from people thinking it was a real attack - in light of the air display crash at Shoreham and the ISIS Tunisian beach massacre.
Mr McLean announced he was “very surprised, shocked and very disappointed to be here.”
Chief Super MacDonald revealed she thought it “regrettable it had come to this point.”
The six councillors thought: “Why are we here exactly?”
The police were trying to block an element of the Ayr air show.
Chief MacDonald was worried about sparking public panic as firebombs were set off, the sound of exploding grenades and sustained rapid fire from the marines’ SA80 assault rifles echoing across the bay.
She dismissed any suggestion her objection was on moral grounds ( those awful images of bodies on the beach) as police are only concerned with public safety.
The atrocities in Tunisia had heightened the public’s fear and alarm which could lead to crowd surges and “significant risk and a serious threat to public order.”
Despite months of “multi- agency” talks the extremely realistic nature of this “battle re- enactment”, police said it was never brought up and no info passed to them, fire or medical teams.
The RN ( spending £ 50k on the mock battle) never once attended these meetings – and Chief MacDonald was fuming at being kept out of the loop. Or should that be loop- de- loop?
Such was the interest in Thursday’s showdown that South Ayrshire’s leader Bill McIntosh and chief executive Eileen Howat watched as the combatants locked horns.
Police insisted there’d only ever been talk of a few flames and smoke bombs and info was “scant” - not one mention of a fierce pyrotechnic gunbattle.
They only became aware of it eight days before the show, no details of an exclusion zone or any specific risk assessment about the risk to public safety.
Doug McLean, a retired air traffic controller, said any “misconception” was the fault of the police.
Naval captain Chris McGinley fired in a despatch saying they did not want to tone it down as that would be untruthful and misleading about what they do.
But he also said they would not aim to “emulate Hollywood.”
And events guru Danny added: “There would be no blood and no gore – we don’t want to shock anyone. It is just a battle reenactment on the beach.”
Pyro- man Geoff was unhappy when it was suggested the action should be toned down.
He said: “Single shot bullets into a sand pile would be embarrassing. I would want to take my logos off everything.”
As the clock wore on towards 5pm, it dawned on the police chief an exit strategy was required.
Talk of compromise emerged involving axing of rapid gunfire and giant fireball explosions.
She said: “The lead in time for the police, stewards and medical teams has been severely limited by the unavailability of this information.”
Councillor Ann Galbraith went straight for the trigger.
She said: “I am appalled at the lack of communication and feel there has been a tad over- reaction.
“Hopefully a compromise can be worked out. If you have the same criteria working at the moment there would be no Tattoo in Edinburgh.”
At 5.17pm the meeting was adjourned while both parties had a secret chin- wag outside.
Cue smoke from imaginary Sistine and at 5.27pm that compromise was finally reached.
No rapid fire from the SA80 killing machines, no naval blasts from the ship and no fireball explosions.
And as meeting commander Peter Convery said: “Hopefully the event is a huge success. You can leave now.”
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