Council workers may lose their jobs after the Eastbourne Airbourne charging fiasco left a huge hole in the local authority’s budget.

Eastbourne Borough Council introduced a £5 charge to cover rising costs after no main sponsor was found for the four-day showpiece air show that finished on Sunday.

But levying a charge put off many people and crowd numbers were significantly lower than predicted. The council had budgeted to raise £450,000 in ticket sales, which would have produced a profit of £191,000. It needed to raise £259,000 to break even.

In fact, only 48,000 people bought tickets. Even if all those were purchased at full price – and thousands were bought through buy-one, get-one-free deals – this would have brought in only £240,000.

Last night council bosses refused to rule out the possibility of redundancies to balance the books.

Norman Kinnish, the council’s director of economy, tourism, and environment, said: “The only figure we are releasing at the moment is that there were 48,000 people in the paid-for area.

“It is too early to look at possible consequences. We need to reconcile the figures and the severity of the problem before anything is decided. A top-to-tail review of the charging policy has been launched. We are keen to keep the show in the town.”

Council and tourism chiefs had been hoping for good weather and bumper ticket sales to help pull off the gamble of charging for the event in a bid to turn around last year’s loss of £72,000.

The decision to charge sparked anger, with many people refusing to pay and instead watching the show from the beaches, promenade and roads outside the enclosure.

The council had to pay for a contractor to manage the admission gates, £55,000 for fencing and £100,000 for extra policing.

Traders said there were so few people they made little or no profit and many vowed to stay away next year.

Earlier this week council leader David Tutt ordered an inquiry into the decision to charge for the event.

He said: “Council taxpayers have sent us a clear message.

They do not want to pay for Airbourne either by increases in council tax or by charging.

“We will be investigating what went right, what went wrong and looking very seriously at ways of ensuring the event for future years.”

The losses mirror those incurred by Mid Sussex District Council last year when its arts festival flopped.

The Big Culture Show in Haywards Heath was billed as the biggest public event in the town for years, with acts including The Feeling and Chas & Dave. The three-day event at the end of May sold only 1,175 tickets and left taxpayers with a £270,000 bill.

Following the revelations the council’s head of leisure, Paul Squires, and cabinet member for leisure, Chris Hersey, resigned.