Banksy mural covered up over insensitivity fears surrounding child’s inflatable trampoline death
Local council said ‘we fully appreciate these circumstances would not have been known by the artist’
A mural designed by street artist Banksy has been covered up amid fears it could be seen as insensitive following the death of a child nearby.
The artwork, which was left on a wall near Norfolk’s Gorleston beach, depicts two children on an inflatable dingy being launched into the air.
In 2018, three-year-old Ava-May Littleboy died on the beach after an inflatable trampoline she was riding on burst.
Great Yarmouth Borough council said it a statement that the decision to cover up the mural was “the right decision, respecting local people and feelings”.
However, it thanked Banksy for the artwork added that the council “fully appreciate these circumstances would not have been known by the artist”.
According to the council, it will be possible to restore the mural at a later date and relocate it to a “more suitable, alternative location”.
Per a BBC News report, the council said in a statement: “In light of the tragic fatality of a child in 2018 which involved an inflatable not far from the yacht pond at Gorleston, the illustration at that location has been removed.
“Council operatives, acting in good faith, and aware of the local sensitivities, arranged for it to be covered over as part of their normal inspection and maintenance regime of the yacht pond.”
The mural was one of several discovered in Norfolk and Suffolk over the past week, left by the artist as part of a self-described “Great British Spraycation”.