Beach hut tenants tell council to sell off ‘Mary Celeste’ office buildings ‘which are empty as staff work from home’ instead of using them as ‘cash cows’ by hiking rents on £770-a-year cabins
- Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council to price hutters out with rent hike
- The cost of hut rental on the south coast may more than double within five years
- Locals urge the council to sell off disused offices with staff working from home
Tenants in Dorset are pleading for their council to sell off unused office buildings to avoid renters being forced out by price hikes.
Cash-strapped Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council have announced plans to more than double the fees for local beach huts over the next five years.
Renters who currently pay as little as £770 a year in rent for the space their cabins sit on will have to pay an extra £1,000 by 2027, if plans go ahead.
People who buy their own beach hut in Mudeford, Christchurch, may reportedly expect to pay £25,000 in transfer fees in future, up from £7,000 – an increase of more than 250%.
Mudeford is known for hosting some of the most expensive beach huts in the country, with one selling for £450,000 earlier this year.
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.’
PBHTA chairman Bob Lister (C) with fellow beach hut owners Andy (L) and Yvonne Hartwell (R)
Beach huts along England’s south coast may cost more than double their current fees by 2027
Huts along England’s scenic south coast can fetch nearly half a million pounds in some parts
Bob Lister compared empty council buildings to the deserted Mary Celeste merchant ship
Hutters have suggested the council could avoid pricing out residents by selling off reportedly unused office space.
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 found it 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.
‘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.’
The Mary Celeste was an American merchant ship discovered in the Atlantic Ocean in 1872 with its crew missing and cargo untouched.
Mr Lister said that his association had met with the council on three occasions to discuss the rent hikes.
As a compromise, they claim to have asked the council to raise fees by 10 per cent.
But the chairman worries the council will cap rent increases enough.
He said: ‘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.’
The council will vote on the proposals next week.
Mr Lister was also concerned that, while residents were being priced out of their beach huts, the council had wasted ‘hundreds of thousands of pounds’ on installing communal electric barbecues along the beach promenade that ‘don’t work’.
The electric beach barbecues cost the council £350,000 to buy, install and maintain last year.
A spokesperson for the council said at the time the communal barbecues had ‘worked successfully’ for other resorts.
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council will vote on their proposals next week
Residents fear they will be priced out of their cabins by holidaymakers from the city
In Poole, rents on frontline huts will reportedly increase by 42% over the next five years
Bournemouth Town Hall was reportedly empty when Mr Lister visited to discuss rent increases
In a joint statement, the chairs of the four local 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 MailOnline contacted Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council for comment on allegations of unused office space.
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