There will be no donkey rides, naughty postcards or sticks of rock on the banks of the Thames this summer: a plan to bring a bit of the seaside to London has been stymied after Southwark council refused permission for a temporary beach to be built near Tower Bridge... From the Guardian.
It had been hoped the scheme would emulate the success of the so-called Paris Plage, which allows Parisians to sun themselves on tonnes of imported sand by the Seine.
However, Southwark council turned down the idea, the brainchild of the communications company O2, on "commercial and logistical" grounds.
The council said that rock star and campaigner Bob Geldof's Ten Alps events company, which had planned to build the beach on an old coach park part-owned by the council, had not submitted its proposal until the beginning of June.
It said: "The decision to refuse Ten Alps permission to stage the event there was taken by our property team and was based on commercial and logistical issues."
The refusal drew an angry response yesterday from Geldof.
He described the council as "truly pathetic" and said: "I'm sick and tired of their endless excuses.
"I don't care what their reason is. It would inevitably be inadequate."
He blamed the failure of the plan on the "constant negativity" that afflicts London, which he described as "the greatest city in the world".
Southwark council said that although Ten Alps had approached its licensing department about the prospect of building a beach, no firm submission was made until the beginning of June.
It also said it had warned the company that its application was unlikely to get the go-ahead.
But Geldof is insistent that Britain will have an urban beach, even if it can't be in London.
"Now we're going to go to another city that wants to contribute towards a good summer for its inhabitants. It is truly impossible with the authority structure in Britain," he told the London Evening Standard.
"Of course, you have permission and regulation, but they must be in context and proportions."
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