BCP Council told to 'sell off Mary Celeste buildings'

Officials at Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole Council have announced plans to more than double the fees of the resort's famous beach huts over the next five years.

People who currently pay as little as £770 a year in rent for the space their wooden cabins sit on will have to pay an extra £1,000 by 2027.

Read more: BCP Council beach huts fees see increases across the board

And people who buy a beach hut at exclusive Mudeford in the future will have to pay £25,000 in transfer fees compared to £7,000 now.

Beach hut tenants have raised concerns have plans to introduce fee hikes (Image: BNPS)

Furious 'hutters' have described the proposed year-on-year increases as a 'travesty' that will lead to many of them giving up their huts.

And they fear the cabins will end up being rented out to wealthy visitors from London and the Home Counties as not many locals can afford them.

They say that officials should instead raise extra cash by selling off council offices that are no longer being used as the majority of staff now work from home following the pandemic.

Bob Lister, the chairman of the Poole Beach Hut Tenants Association, said he recently went to the town hall in Bournemouth to discuss the proposed rental increases and said it was eerily empty.

He said: "There was one person on the reception desk and the rest of the building was empty. I was in there for an hour and a half and I saw two other people in that time. It was like the Mary Celeste.

Bob Lister (Image: BNPS)

"If their staff are working from home then they don't need their offices. They should sell the building and turn the offices into residential use or something.

"Instead they are going after beach hut owners and tenants and using us as cash cows.

"But they have got us by the short and curlies.

"The council thinks there are plenty of people on the waiting lists will pick them up but I don't think those people realise what the rents will be like. If they don't pay then the council will probably end up letting them out to people from outside the area."

The council plans to bring in the large increases year-on-year over the next five years.

Mr Lister said: "We had three meetings with them and asked them to raise the fees by 10 per cent and then lets see. But they have done what they wanted to do.

"In Poole, they are looking to increase rents on front line huts by 42 per cent over five years. So my hut will go from £2,680 to £3,820 in that time.

"This is just pushing people too far. A lot of hut owners are pensioners on fixed incomes.

"I have already had people contact me saying they will have to give their hut up."

Read more: Beach hut groups slam BCP Council's proposed fee increase

Mr Lister accused the Tory-run council of wasting hundreds of thousands of pounds on installing communal electric barbecues along the beach promenade that 'don't work'.

He claimed that they were also going to spend £125,000 on a new database for beach hut tenants.

At Friars Cliff in Christchurch, hut owners are facing a rise in their ground rent of up to 170 per cent over five years.

Alan Cook, chairman of the Friars Cliff Beach Hut Association, said: "They think if you have a beach hut you are affluent but I have members aged in their 80s in tears because they can't afford to keep theirs.

"We have a couple who have two autistic children and they use their hut as their holiday."

In a joint statement, the chairs of all four beach hut associations across the resort, said: "We believe that this proposal is purely to increase the revenue coming into the council by raising the prices in an unfair and inequitable manner.

"The council's plans involve hiking the prices over five years for beach hut rentals to avoid cost cutting and a necessary drive for efficiency.

"During the 'engagement' process the Beach Hut Associations put forward alternative plans which, by and large, have been ignored.

"To call the new pricing structure 'fair' is a travesty."

A spokesman for BCP Council said the extra revenue will mean they can invest more money in the upkeep of the beach huts and seafront services.

Councillor Mark Anderson, cabinet member for environment, said: "Our beach huts have had under investment for a number of years, and these plans will unleash around £4.4million of much needed investment in our beach huts and their services.

"We talked early on with key stakeholders about how we can provide a better service and we have heard a number of views raised during the evolution of these plans. I am pleased that we can show we have listened to those and addressed many of these head on.

"We know there is a substantial difference between prices across the region and want to address that so that we have a simple and fair pricing system. We've recognised that we need to introduce this system over time to reduce that immediate impact and give people the opportunity to plan ahead.

"As part of the proposals the council plans to maintain restrictions on joining waiting lists for those who live outside of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole.

"Representatives of the beach hut associations have also been invited to share a list of maintenance items which will be considered as part of the new management plans."

The proposals will be voted on by the council next week.