THE popular firework celebrations in Lymington will not take place this year following safety problems at last year's event.

The 2016 display at Pennington Recreation in Lodge Road was marred after debris from the fireworks fell on members of the crowd.

After the event vandals made their way onto the recreation ground in vehicles and drove over the cricket and football pitches, which took three days to repair.

The fireworks event has been organised by the Rotary Club for the last 20 years.

Lymington town mayor Barry Dunning said the Rotarians stepped back from running the display after the issues around last year's event.

"The Rotary Club are all volunteers and they got a lot of stick last year.

"We would listen to anyone willing to solve the safety issue and organise the fireworks next year."

Pennington ward councillor Jack Davies said: "We have the Christmas fair and after that the fireworks is the next biggest in the calender.

"Hopefully we will be able to have a display next year."