DONALD Campbell's Bluebird K7 will not be running on Coniston Water this summer, according to the Bluebird Project which rebuilt the iconic boat after recovering it from the lake bed.

The Bluebird Project has issued a statement to confirm that "due to reasons out of our hands K7 will unfortunately NOT being running on Coniston in 2019".

According to the statement on Twitter, the Bluebird Project and the Lake District National Park Authority were told by the Bluebird Event Working Group via email on Tuesday evening that: "Due to unforeseen circumstances we will not be going ahead with the proposed dates for running Bluebird on Coniston Water in July 2019. However, we remain committed to celebrating Bluebird's return to Coniston."

The Bluebird Event Working Group is the committee responsible for submitting a public event plan to the LDNPA for Campbell's Bluebird running on the lake. It includes members of Coniston Parish Council and representatives from the community.

The Bluebird Project said it immediately sought clarification and sent a request for a representative of the Bluebird Event Working Group to contact it the next day to "discuss and agree a policy going forward with regard to future plans and media relations".

The Bluebird Project said this met with "no response whatsoever" and several attempts had been made throughout Wednesday to speak to a representative of the group "without result".

The statement from the Bluebird Group continued: "We at the BBP (Bluebird Project) have no idea what these 'unforeseen circumstances' may be at this time and it is regrettable that the planned and long-awaited return to Coniston Water will not happen in 2019 but we are equally committed to displaying Bluebird this year and have thus maintained options on alternate venues against this eventuality and therefore hope soon to announce when and where you can see this iconic machine in action in 2019 as well as enjoying a richer range of educational and inspirational activities on offer during our second crew training exercise.

"In addition, we have also formally invited the Ruskin Museum as co-owners of K7 and our long-term partners to be an integral part of this so as to further cement Bluebird's eventual return to and display in the village of Coniston between outings."

The Mail attempted to contact Coniston Parish Council's chair Tracy Coward, clerk Janette Carroll and Cllr Anne Hall, but no response has yet been received.