‘MEAN’ council bureaucrats in Bournemouth have banned a group of fundraisers from collecting money along the route of a charity bed push.

Ladies from the Seabrook Seals open-water swimming group will attempt to push a hospital bed between Sandbanks and Hengistbury Head this August.

But while the Borough of Poole has given them the green light to collect money along their part of the seafront, Bournemouth council has warned them they will have to put their collection tins away when they pass Branksome Chine. Instead it has told the Seabrook Seals they can collect only at Pier Approach, on the condition they provide entertainment. The group has also been told they may be able to collect at Boscombe Pier, but that the council does not allow any mobile collections along the promenade.

The bed push is one of several charity events the group is planning in order to raise funds for the RNLI and the Hampshire and Isle of Wight air ambulance. It is also designed to publicise a cross-Channel relay swim they are doing next year for the same organisations.

Group founder Dee Seabrook, 49, said: “We were hoping to rattle buckets as we went along and Poole didn’t have a problem with that, but Bournemouth just said no.

“It did take us by surprise, we obviously knew we had to apply for permission and go through the proper process, but never in a million years did we think we wouldn’t be able to fundraise.

“We just didn’t see it as a problem at all, it seems very mean of the council.

“We’re still going to go ahead with the event and we will just have to collect as much as we can in Poole and at Pier Approach.

“It just seems crazy that one council says you can and one says you can’t.”

Mark Smith, director of tourism and corporate communications, described the council’s offer as “a sensible solution.”

“As a premier tourism resort Bournemouth’s events team receive over 450 applications to use our popular open spaces with approximately half of these being charitable based events,” he said.

“Whilst the council is keen to support charitable activities it would not be fair or consistent to allow individual requests and not be prepared to accept similar requests from the vast number of charitable events that use the area each year.”

Information about the group’s cross-Channel swim and how you can sponsor them is available on the Seabrook Seals’ Facebook page.