Ten new beach huts by Hove Lagoon could be on sale to the public in the coming months.
Brighton and Hove City Council has applied to itself for planning permission for the huts, in a space south of the lagoon on the prom.
They will fill in gaps between existing beach huts – in a stretch of six, then three then a single hut on the end.
The application says: “This project is the installation of 10 new beach huts built to the BHCC beach huts specification and placed directly onto the promenade above Hove Lagoon on the Western Esplanade.
“The beach hut design is the same style as the existing beach huts in Hove.
“It is proposed that the huts are purchased from Kairos Global – a brand experience company who are hiring out the huts on Kings Esplanade close to the Meeting Place cafe for the summer season.
“The council will be selling the huts to Brighton and Hove residents on the open market.”
I guessed before reading the whole article these would be the beach huts that were temporarily placed for hire, next to the Meeting Place cafe.
I walked past there a lot this summer – and I saw them being painted on site, and then I saw that they were never rented out.
Was the rental just too expensive? Or was the chosen location wrong?
(We do know that renting out beach huts in other seaside resorts still happens, and people take them on for a day or for a whole holiday week. As the base for a family bucket-and-spade holiday, it’s a great idea…)
In this article, it states that the beach hut design is the same as for all our beach huts. I’d dispute that because, having built several beach huts myself, and to the plans specified, these newcomers to my eye are noticeably taller. I suspect the builders made a mistake with their measurements.
It will now be interesting to hear what prices these huts go on the open market for..
Once you’ve paid the going rate to buy a beach hut, often £20K or more, you still have to pay the annual council rental fee to the council, plus the costs of maintenance are high, given the sea air location. The actually build cost for a new hut is high nowadays, but should still come in at less than £10K for a new hut in marine plywood, fitted out inside and fully painted..
It would be interesting to see a league table of UK resort beach huts, rating their market value and running coats. The most famous ones are probably at Mudeford near Christchurch harbour – and I think you can sleep in those.
But my favourites are at Branscombe in Devon, and those near Cromer on the north Norfolk coastline.
The Council is spending £51,000 to purchase ten beach huts (who gets the 11th?) which appeared near the Meeting Place with no planning permission and possibly illegally.
They are not the same size as the other beach huts on Hove seafront.
Why does the Council need to purchase these redundant beach huts to solve the problem of them being put in the wrong place which presumably someone on the Council allowed.
There are already many beach huts for sale and this money could have been put toward restoring the decrepit state of the seafront railings, shelters and benches on Hove seafront instead.
The criminals are meant to be painting railings and fixing benches on hove seafront we are led to believe as part of community service.
Also this isn’t money thrown in the bin as they will be sold so actually some profit here but I’m sure the council will find a way of making a loss lol
If the council are getting ten new beach huts for £51k then that’s a good deal.
Indeed it’s a win win situation for the council, because they then sell them on for up to four times that amount (£10K or even £20K each), plus they then get the future annual ground rental fees – which I understand is already well over £600 per year per hut.
But wouldn’t it be wonderful if the profit from this deal was ploughed back into seafront maintenance – like painting the rusting promenade railings and lamp posts.