A Bishop Auckland play area centre which includes a barnyard has confirmed it has made the "difficult decision" to close.

Bamboozles Adventure World on Hatfield Way in Bishop Auckland has today (October 21) confirmed it will close shortly.

The business, which hosts parties in themed rooms as well as serving food, drinks and more, says the reason for the closure is due to an increase in rent.

In a post confirming the news, the team said they needed to "get the facts out there quickly" following discourse online.

A statement on the centre's Facebook page reads: "Some of you may have heard that Bamboozles is closing. It is with a sad heart that we can confirm this is true.

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"This decision has only recently been finalised and we hoped to have some time to create a formal post to make all of our customers aware of the true situation.

"However, after someone posted misleading information without knowing the context on a community Facebook page this morning, we have rushed to get this information out to prevent any further rumours and scaremongering, so apologies, this was not the way we wanted to let you all know."

Scheduled parties until November 25 are set to go ahead as the team promise more information in due course.