Battersea Power Station is to be transformed into a temporary park this summer meaning picnic-lovers will be able to be bask in sunshine by the river.

The park would be connected to Battersea Park via a new riverside walkway which would run underneath the Grosvenor Railway Bridge.

It is set to open this summer and the site’s owners hope to open it to the public as often as possible within the constraints of their ongoing construction programme.

Councillor Nick Cuff, the council's planning chairman, said: "It will be the first time Londoners have been able to set foot on the site and get a close up view of the power station.

"A new riverside park would be a major attraction in its own right but this one will be right alongside one of the capital’s most iconic buildings.

"The temporary park will be one of the first pieces of new public space created in Nine Elms.

"By the time the regeneration programme is complete the temporary park will have been replaced with an even larger, permanent park which will open up a whole new stretch of the South Bank and created a fantastic network of green space."

The plans were approved by Wandsworth Council on Monday night at the monthly planning committee meeting.