Leamington shopping centre gives reason for cancelling bouncy castle events

The management team at The Royal Priors in Leamington has cited health and safety reasons for cancelling inflatable play events for children which normally take place at the shopping centre during school holidays.

Angry parents launched a petition on the Change.org website after Family Parties announced on its Facebook page on Friday that the shopping centre had pulled the plug on the events which have been taking place in the Upper Mall.

To view the Facebook post click here.

To view the petition click here.

In response, a spokeswoman for the Royal Priors said: “We are immensely proud of our relationship with Family Parties over the past seven years. As a centre we have always felt it important to support local businesses and have been happy to provide space free of charge on the mall.

“Unfortunately, due to a programme of works in the centre, we were made aware that in line with health and safety regulations we would no longer be able to allow the event to take place in its usual location.

We will always place the safety of our visitors, and in this instance children, ahead of any commercial pressures we may face.

"Regulations do change and are specified by external partners to ensure health and safety is prioritised over local pressures.

"The centre team were advised of the situation and had no choice but to inform Family Parties in late February that the event would not be able to go ahead on the mall.

“Alternatives were offered through third parties, but we understand were not deemed suitable.

“Recognising the loss, we did arrange free activities on Saturday and welcomed 104 children across the day.

"We are repeating this with free children’s games and activities on Saturday March 28 and Saturday April 6 between 11am and 4pm.

“We understand that the event would have generated a lot of revenue for Family Parties over the holidays but we hope that the wider community can understand our need to put their children’s wellbeing first at all times.”