Sadly, it looks as if last year’s Balloon Festival may have been the last. It has been a popular event for nearly 20 years, but since the sponsorship for shaped balloons ended a few years ago it has been more and more difficult to make the festival pay for itself. Even with the charge, to hold it again would have cost the equivalent of £3 for every council tax payer, at a time when the Council is having to find over £8 million in savings due to the recession and lack of government funding.

 

To continue the balloon festival there would have had to be more severe cuts in other council services. With many other difficult decisions to take we do not believe that could have been justified.

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