Need some help with PP

[barfastic]

hey guys, while walking around with a friend yesterday i managed to get a quick shot of the london eye using my new wide angle lens. And although i like the idea of the shot, there are 2-3 things that bother me and i would like to see if someone could fix using GIMP or PS, etc.

here is the unedited (saturation white balance etc as is from raw file version)

and here is the one after my changes

To remove:
-the leaves on the top
-the building on the left hand side? no matter where i stood i couldnt get it out of the way.
-also the biker could vanish if you have the skills to do that too!

seems like a i need less than 10 mm to acheive this shot from this specific angle...

Any ideas on what i can do to make it a better shot? i know its centered but i feel like this has to be centered (all the intertangling lines and cables)

 

[bcshort]

The thing that bothers me in this image is the blown highlight in the centre of the image - and from that, no amount amount of post-production will fix.

I think you really need some graduated ND Filters to get this photo done properly.