Gorleston Banksy: Covered artwork done with 'best intentions'

After painting over the image, the council said it "fully appreciated" local circumstances would not have been known by the artist

The father of a girl who died after she was thrown from an inflatable trampoline said he "appreciated" a Banksy artwork being painted over by the local council.

The mural at Gorleston-on-Sea, Norfolk, was of two children on an inflatable dinghy being flung in the air.

It was covered up amid "sensitivity" to three-year-old Ava-May Littleboy's death in 2018.

Nathan Rowe said he was sure Banksy had "the best of intentions".

The Banksy mural appeared earlier this month on a wall at the yacht pond, not far from where Ava-May, from Lower Somersham in Suffolk, was playing on the inflatable trampoline before it exploded.

She died from a head injury.

Ava-May Littleboy, three, died after she was thrown from an inflatable trampoline at Gorleston beach in July 2018

Great Yarmouth Borough Council said it covered up the artwork out of respect to "local people and feelings".

A council spokesman said: "We thank Banksy for all the wonderful artwork and fully appreciate these circumstances would not have been known by the artist."

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In a Facebook post, Mr Rowe said: "Being Ava-May's father, I appreciate what the local council have done in removing the wall art of the inflatable boat blowing away in the wind."

He added that he could "only imagine" that the "upsetting" image was painted "unknowingly" by the mysterious artist, who has claimed responsibility for a series of 10 works that have appeared on the Norfolk and Suffolk coast this month.

Mr Rowe added that the dinghy artwork "could only have been done with the best intentions and not intended to upset anyone".

He thanked Banksy for his "one-of-a-kind masterpieces" and said he would like to see an artwork in the artist's "signature style" showing "townsfolk releasing hundreds of pink balloons".

It would be a "well received, understood and heart-warming gesture", he said.

Banksy listed the mural on his website as part of his "Great British Spraycation"

The council said it was protecting the Banksy artworks, such as this one in Great Yarmouth, as they were "creating so much interest"

The council said it was "confident" the dinghy artwork could be restored and "placed in a more suitable, alternative location".

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