Highland Council says it has put a stop to the hiring of bouncy castles at its premises for health and safety reasons.

The authority also said the huge size of its region made it difficult for its staff to get to venues to carry out thorough risk assessments.

Inverness-based inflatables business Mascot Madness Entertainment has challenged the council to fully explain its decision.

Details of the ban first emerged in a row reported by the Inverness Courier.

Highland Council said it recognised that inflatables, such as bouncy castles and slides, were a much-loved addition to local events.

But a spokesman said that because of concerns about accidents the local authority had put in place “a foreseeable pause on the hiring of inflatables”.

It said hiring inflatables required thorough risk assessments and quality checks by experienced staff.

The spokesman said: “The reality of our wonderful and dynamic landscape is that it’s considerable size, access to some locations and availability of appropriate staff, creates challenges which mean that is not possible to carry out the checks needed, which occur multiple times a year across a vast estate of over 200 schools.