A POPULAR Burnham-on-Sea food festival has been cancelled due to an 'alarming' rise in Covid-19 cases.

Organisers from eat:Festivals announced today (October 20) that they have taken the decision not to proceed with eat:Burnham this Saturday (October 24) as Covid-19 cases continue to rise across the South West.

A spokesperson for eat:Festivals, said: "We have had a scheduled call with the Civil Contingencies officer for Sedgemoor District Council and a representative of the Director of Public Health for Somerset.

"We agreed that, with the infection rate rising alarmingly over the past few days in the Burnham-on-Sea area, the only way for us to contribute to the protection of public health is to cancel eat:Burnham.

"This is done with heavy hearts but our producers’ and the public’s safety are our primary concerns.

"We looked at how we could adapt the market further but the consensus was that, in these conditions, the event is too popular to be able to maintain the Covid-secure status we have worked so hard to achieve.”

Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic eat:Festivals said it has been working with Sedgemoor District Council and Somerset County Council to ensure that its events have proceeded and complied with Covid-19 secure standards from the Government.

A representative of the Director of Public Health for Somerset said: “eat:Festivals have done everything we have asked of them (and more) to ensure that events go ahead with the minimum of risk.

‘Whist our rates of COVID infection in Somerset remain lower than the national picture, rates in Somerset are increasing.

"At the time of writing the Somerset rate is 39 per 100,000 population.

"Rates for the Sedgemoor District are higher than this rate at 49.8/100,000, from the 10-16th October. The Sedgemoor cases are concentrated in the Brean and Burnham area at the moment and subject to some focused work. Our rates will continue to rise and we must do everything we can to prevent the spread.“

The eat:Festivals team said they are meeting with the Somerset County Council and the relevant officers from Sedgemoor District Council next week to review the Christmas festivals they have planned.