Tony Blair urged to allow more pageants on the river by closing Thames Barrier

Tony Blair’s government was urged to close the Thames Barrier to allow pageants and parades, newly released files show.

Alex Allan, private secretary to the prime minister in 1997, wrote to Peter Mandelson about “making greater use” of the Thames river through London.

Mr Allan proposed “Edwardian floating picnics at Richmond” and “maritime pageants off Greenwich”.

The files were in the latest released from the National Archives at Kew.

The idea came out of a conversation Mr Allan had with Sir Brian Shaw, chairman of the Port of London Authority.

The document suggested a number of possible uses to coincide with the new millennium.

“There would be an opportunity for safe parades of interesting vessels like steamboats, Thames barges and Dunkirk Little Ships, up and down the river,” the letter said.

This would allow “small pleasure craft which normally find the tidal Thames altogether too inhospitable” to use the waterway as well.

But the ideas breached the Thames Barrier and Flood Prevention Act, which states that the barrier can only be closed for a strict number of reasons such as training and testing.