Recent plans to rejuvenate the dilapidated Bournemouth Pier have been rejected after a council meeting held on Monday.
The plans, submitted by the Openwide Company, included a zip wire, surf wave ride and a high rope course.
The meeting was attended by the councillors, members of the public and the director of Openwide in order to decide whether to approve the project or reject it. After the vote, eight of the nine councillors rejected the proposition with only one Liberal Democrat councillor voting in favour.
An spokesperson for Bournemouth Council said that planning officers at Bournemouth Borough Council had recommended rejecting the scheme.
David Kelsey, the Chairman of the planning board at Bournemouth Borough Council said: “I am not against the development itself, but the structure they want to put in the end of the Pier looks like build a scaffold in the tower which is not good enough for Bournemouth.’’
He added: “We supposed to be a superior seaside resort and we do not need scaffolds in towers at the end of what is already an ugly Pier, as it is an iconic building we have to keep the decent part and stop it being demolished further.’’
Kelsey said he loved the idea of the zip wire, but it appears incongruous for Bournemouth Pier.
Roger West, the Bournemouth Liberal Democrat councillor who supported the idea said: “Bournemouth finds it very difficult to find its feet in the new century. And now it is starting to fail, so aspects such as the shopping centre and the town have to be changed.’’
He added: “We cannot ask a developer to take over a major attraction like the Pier and not let him do something adventurous with it, and that is what I tried to encourage him to do. The current theatre in the Pier is an ugly building and we have to do something to change it. The Pier in general has to be brought to the life.’’
