Children will be made to wear hard hats if they want to take a donkey ride at a seaside festival.

Arun District Council has made the ruling because it fears children could be hurt if they fall off.

The Sands of Time event in Bognor has regularly brought in donkeys from Weston-Super-Mare for rides along the prom.

This year, however, the council has told organiser Paul Wells hard hats should be issued to children wishing to ride the animals.

Mr Wells said: "We applied for permission for donkeys to come to Bognor Regis and I received a letter from the council saying that every donkey rider has to wear a hard hat.

"I have never heard of such a thing before. I could understand if it was a donkey derby or something, as they would be running up and down the beach, but it is just a gentle stroll.

"To actually keep changing and fitting young children with hats is going to be difficult. And there are health issues to think of such as nits.

"We do have the hats as B&Q have donated 20 of them but it does seem as if this country is going mad."

Angela Tanner, the council's principal environmental health officer, said the rule was made because the rides were taking place on the concrete promenade, not the beach.

She said: "There is legislation stating that all children under 14 are required to wear helmets on the road but that there is an exemption for donkeys when they are being lead within 30 metres of the spring high tide mark.

"By the letter of the law, I suppose we could say helmets are not necessary, but we want to be responsible and we feel the spirit of the law aims to protect children when they are on roads.

"Every now and again children do fall off and we do not want anyone to be injured during the festival, especially if they fall off on to hard concrete."

The festival this weekend has also attracted the attention of seafront trader Darryl Hardy, who wants to scoop the event's largest sandcastle competition by building a life-size sandcastle with a 16-ton mechanical digger.

Mr Wells added: "If one person gets the go-ahead to use machinery, then what's to stop others following suit? The beach would resemble a building site rather than a sun-trap."