IT’S back. Popular tourist attraction the Bournemouth tethered balloon has returned to its usual spot in the Lower Gardens after an absence of nearly eight months.

Operator S&D Leisure has invested £300,000 in a brand new balloon after the last one was taken out of service at the end of October last year.

The balloon is deflated at the end of every season and inspected.

But as it is now classed as an aircraft rather than a fairground attraction, it has to meet Civil Aviation Authority standards.

Owner Stanley Reeves said the testing was carried out for the CAA by the balloon’s maker, Lindstrand.

He said: “Although we had no problems with the balloon last year, they decided that they wouldn’t renew the airworthy certificate for UK airspace.

“They would give it a certificate to fly elsewhere in the world.

“At no stage was anybody at risk with the old balloon. I would have put my grandchildren in it.

“They still have the balloon in their factory and are trying to sell it to a country where the regulations aren’t so stringent.

“We weren’t prepared to invest £300,000 unless we had a longer contract for the council, so we had to wait for the tendering process to take place.”

• Although the company has now been awarded a licence for the next 10 years, Mr Reeves conceded that the delays had meant missing “probably the best Easter period S&D Leisure has had in the last 14 years”.

He added: “From May Day Bank Holiday until now, the weather has not really given us a chance.

“The weather forecast for the next couple of weeks seems to be good.

“We’ll do some test flights and hopefully we’ll be accepting passengers on Saturday and Sunday.”