A BALLOON festival which had been planned for the summer has been cancelled because of forecasted bad weather.

The event, which has taken place in Durham for the last two years, is now scheduled for spring 2020.

No date had been set for the event, which had been hoped would take place in August.

Adam Deathe, business engagement manager for Durham's Business Improvement District (BID), which organises the event, said the cancellation was due to a combination of a poor weather forecast and the availability of city centre locations.

He said: "Events of this scale take an awful lot of behind-the-scenes planning, and due to logistical constraints beyond our control, it has not been possible to bring together all elements that would allow a city centre site to host the hot air balloon launches this year, at a time that would work well for all stakeholders involved and the wider city’s event calendar.

“Coupled with this, the weather forecast for August is not on our side.

"The continued turbulent weather, as a result of the jet stream remaining stubbornly south of the UK, shows no sign of settling and so we have decided to cease efforts for this year.”

Previous events in 2018 and 2017 were marred by poor weather and cancelled balloon flights.

Last year events were split between East Durham College's Houghall campus, on the outskirts of the city, and The Sands, while the previous year had seen some activities taking place at Palace Green.

It had been hoped that this year's event would take place entirely in the city centre.

Durham BID, which is responsible for increasing footfall in Durham, is hoping to stage the event again next spring.

Mr Deathe added: "We want to make it very clear that we have every intention of Balloons InDurham returning to the city in 2020.

"With the added time this slight delay has afforded us, we’re working even harder behind the scenes to make the event’s come-back bigger and better than ever before."