A BOURNEMOUTH MP says the town's air festival is the single-most important recruiting event for the Armed Forces.

Bournemouth East's Tobias Ellwood has said that thanks to the festival - which saw around 750,000 people flock to the seaside resort over four days - "Bournemouth is now the premier recruitment town for the Royal Navy in the country".

He wrote in a Facebook post: "In return for enhancing the festival's appeal the event is used underline the powerful and proud bond our Armed Forces has with society and to introduce a new generation of youngsters to our military - a number of which will go on to serve as regulars or reservists. 

"The town is to be congratulated for hosting its eighth and to date, most impressive air festival," he said. "The attraction that the festival has is something we as a town should debate how we advance and move forward with it.

"Clearly there will be some voices that will have an opinion of our Armed Forces. I think the nation is immensely proud of them.

"Perhaps the scale of the military's contribution to the festival was not anticipated eight years ago and this has sadly led to an online petition to remove any attachments.

"I could not disagree more. Bournemouth may not be a garrison town or naval port, but its military connections are nevertheless there."

"Given the military's obvious interest to the air festival, the question worth asking is should this relationship remain an annual summer event or should it be explored and developed to establish a more permanent connection between Bournemouth and the Armed Forces?

"How that might manifest itself is up for debate. But as the equipment is packed up and personnel depart, I hope it is a discussion that will be had."

Mr Ellwood is a minister of state in the Foreign Office.

He spoke after the petition began circulating about the military extent of the event.

He said he believes it would be worth extending the links Bournemouth has with the armed forces.

The petition to take tanks, guns and warships out of the hugely popular show was started by former councillor, Lisa Northover, who called it the 'Bournemouth War Festival'.

Ms Northover, who stood against Mr Ellwood in the 2010 election, said: "I've always felt uncomfortable about the air show. Whenever I've gone down there I'm taken aback by how military it is and it's the glamorisation of war that I don't like. I just want people to talk about it and to think about it because it seems that people accept that glamour and people aren't conscious of what they're seeing.

She said: "I want to support the armed forces in other ways. I just think we could have something less military. There's a lot of really nice things you can do - the music in the evening, for example, is really great."

As previously reported, the festival created around 500 full-time jobs and boosted the local economy by £30 million.

Mr Ellwood, who also has responsibility for the Middle East within the Foreign Office, welcomed two potential international Middle Eastern investors to Bournemouth last Friday.

Head of resort marketing and events, Jon Weaver, said: "We welcome the contribution the armed forces make to the Festival for the enjoyment of hundreds of thousands people, as they do at many other airshows around the UK. Our plans are to continue to welcome them in the future."

See all our Air Festival coverage in our dedicated section at bournemouthecho.co.uk/air