The Oceandiva Is Back

The Oceandiva is trying once again to  get permission to operate a giant party boat on the Thames

The OCEANDIVA – Europe’s biggest party boat – was unanimously refused a dedicated Thames pier by the City of London’s Planning & Transportation Committee in 2020, following receipt of 836 objections, including representations from the Police; The River Thames Society; The London Wildlife Trust; The Fishmongers’ Company; the Tower of London; Shakespeare’s Globe and Southwark Cathedral.

• The OCEANDIVA would be the biggest vessel to ever use the Thames regularly. It is the length of a football pitch, holding 1500 partygoers, enjoying massive open deck space. They have now applied to Newham Planning & Licencing for a Premises Licence to allow them to sell and serve alcohol 24/7. The vessel will be usually moored at Dolphin 1, King George V Royal Dock and will call at various piers for embarkation and disembarkation of passengers along the River:  the piers the vessel might use, include but are not limited, to: London Bridge City Pier; Tower Bridge Pier; Tower Millennium Pier; Butlers Wharf Pier; Canary Wharf Pier; West India Pier; West India Dock; Greenwich Pier; North Greenwich Pier; Royal Wharf Pier and Woolwich Arsenal Pier.

Here is the link to their website: www.oceandivalondon.co.uk

Please view the attached Licence Application and Plan of the Boat. The cut-off date for receipt of Objections to the Application is midnight on 9^th September 2022

Please write stating your name, address, and Post Code (without which your submission will not be valid) with your observations to:

Licensing@newham.gov.uk – Reference: 22/03097/LAPRE, Premises licence application for Ocean Diva under the Licensing Act 2003

ST Katharine & Wapping Ward Panel are concerned about this vessel’s operation on the River Thames for the following reasons:

The License request is to sell and serve alcohol 24 hours a day. Some events will finish as late as 1am- 1:30am. The majority of public transport has closed down by this time, so the reliance for disembarking passengers will fall to private hire coaches, taxi’s, minicabs etc.

One of the key Licensing objectives is to prevent Public Nuisance and it is not clear from this application how the applicant will achieve this as they have failed to file any reports/plans. *(see list below). It is the Public Nuisance aspect which gives us most concern in respect of the size of the vessel; its capacity and the 24/7 alcohol licence that is being applied for.

Reports ABSENT from this application, but which you would expect to see, include:

No Passage/Route Plan or risk assessment relating to the piers it plans to operate with.

No Noise Impact Assessment or Acoustic Report provided. This is vital given the vast open-deck space. Their brochure states: “Comprehensive sound system with full coverage of all spaces.”

No Light Pollution Assessment – we believe the vessel has significant deck lighting including strobe and laser lights available for use.

No Event Management Plan detailing crowd management of embarkation and disembarkation to include a vehicle movement assessment for passengers arriving and leaving the boat. Crowd Control: Whichever pier/s are used, this is particularly challenging. Many partygoers will come by Coach or by Uber/Taxi/Private Hire vehicles and will in particular be using that transport to get them home late at night. The risk is that adjacent roads may become one giant car park.

No assessment of impact on local amenities/transportation/Emergency Services/Marine Police Unit.

As background, this is the 3^rd attempt by OCEANDIVA to get its mega party boat on the River. Back in August 2017, the Port of London Authority, concerned about the size of the vessel wrote of its concerns: “Navigation of the vessel through the C. London bridges as it exceeds the parameters we have established for routinely navigating vessels (80m x 12m) by some margin. The position the PLA have reached on this point is that while it is possible to navigate this vessel through London, the risk is high and the number of transits being suggested will almost certainly result in contact with a bridge at some stage.” (Mark Towens, PLA, to Edwin Petersen, OceanDiva owner, 23.8. 2017 – correspondence obtained under EIR 2004). Whilst this risk of bridge contact has now been mitigated, as the OceanDiva appears to be staying downriver, East of London Bridge, it nevertheless indicates the size involved and possible difficulty for other shipping negotiating the river.

If you share the concerns of the Ward Panel, please reply to Licensing@newham.gov.uk by midnight on 9^th September 2022 – under reference 22/03097/LAPRE. This matter will go to a Hearing so we suggest you ask in your email to be notified of the date of any Hearing as you may wish to attend in person, or on-line.

AND do lobby your Local Councillors.

Cllr Abdal Ullah: cllr.abdal.ullah@towerhamlets.gov.uk

Cllr Amy Lee : Cllr.amy.lee@towerhamlets.gov.uk

22-08-31-OCEANDIVA-Plan.pdf

22-08-31-OCEANDIVA-Premises-Licence-App.pdf

St Kathrine & Wapping Safer Neighbourhood Ward Panel

(a non-political Group of Volunteers, working with the Police, Local Authority and Residents to make the Ward a Safer
Place in which to live and work)