Owners of beach huts worth £300,000 each fear they will be left in the shade by a two-storey restaurant planned for their exclusive seaside peninsula.
Officials tabled the £1million scheme for Mudeford Spit, Dorset, on the site of a cafe that burned down two years ago.
But ‘hutters’ have been up in arms over the change, claiming it will ‘dominate’ the skyline, ‘overshadow’ their huts and attract more tourists to the secluded location.
They said Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council should ‘take notice of our feelings’ as they pay £4,500-a-year in rates and their 360 huts have a combined value of more than £100million.
Councillors submitted their plan for the derelict site at the beginning of this year and earmarked the funding, sparking more than 200 complaints.
They were forced to announce it would be ‘reviewed’ in June following accusations of ‘inadequate’ consultation. The review will be completed in September.
Residents are up in arms over plans to replace the burnt out wreck of a cafe with a two-storey restaurant in Mudeford Spit, Dorset. (Left: Scene before the fire. Right: Artists impression of seafront if the restaurant is built)
The beach hut owners say they should be listened to by the council as they pay £4,500-a-year in rates and the combined value of all their huts is more than £100million
One angry local said the restaurant would be ‘too big and too modern’ for the community
Mudeford Spit in Dorset is located near Christchurch, Bournemouth and Southampton
Stephen Bath owns one of the 360 huts on isolated Mudeford Spit, which has banned cars and requires a 30-minute walk to be accessed.
Mr Bath, whose hut is close to the site, said: ‘A like-for-like building will make the hut owners happy. We are the only residents affected and we are sitting on about £110m worth of property there.
‘It should be a no-brainer. Instead they have come up with this hugely controversial plan that could cost up to £1million.
‘Times are supposed to be tough for councils, why would anyone in their right minds want to blow a fortune when they could have it (built like the old cafe) for nothing?’
Fellow hut owner James Cregan slammed the hut for being ‘too big and modern’ and feeling like something belonging to a ‘huge tourist destination with no true roots’.
‘I feel for the hut owners behind the cafe who will be massively overshadowed by the building, and if those huts are your one true piece of paradise, it feels like that’s being whisked away.
‘I have only just finished rebuilding my own hut and the trouble I went through over 300mm of deck height feels somewhat grating when you’re considering such a high new build.’
This is an artists impression of how the restaurant will look inside when it is finished
This birds-eye view map shows the space taken up by the cafe, and the space which the restaurant will occupy
Rupert Holloway, who has a hut on the beach, said the council’s beleagured restaurant scheme should be abandoned because the character of the area needs to be ‘preserved’.
‘The design does not follow those same rules,’ he said. ‘It completely changes the character of the beach and is a complete departure from the council’s own rules about preserving what makes the area so special.
‘The addition of a first floor is completely unacceptable.’
Steve Barratt, chairman of the Mudeford Sandbank Beach Hut Association, said: ‘The proposal for the Beach House cafe is a betrayal of the trust placed in the council.
‘It will have a negative effect on hut owners and result in a building that would dominate the landscape for miles and destroy the openness of the site in an environmentally sensitive area.
‘We are incensed that the council would want to spend over £1.1m of public money based on an unproven commercial case at a time of Covid uncertainty.’
The chairman of the Mudeford Sandbank Beach Hut Association slammed the proposed restaurant as a ‘betrayal’ that will ‘completely change the character of the beach’
Huts in the area can go on sale for more than £300,000. As cars are banned in the area, it is only possible to reach them by trekking on foot for 30 minutes
The former tenant of the cafe said they are keen to get open and trading again as soon as possible. The building and land is owned by the council
There has been a cafe at Mudeford since the 1950s. After it burnt down the council, which owns the site, received a £350,000 insurance payout. It is planning to borrow £800,000 to pay for the replacement restaurant.
Council leader Vikki Slade defended the plan, stating: ‘Proposals are for a modern airy design, in keeping with this beautiful and unique beach location.
‘We also want to prioritise affordable, innovative, sustainable technologies and practices in-line with our aspirations to address the global climate-change emergency.’
Kim Slater, who ran the Beach House cafe for 16 years until it burnt down, said he is just looking to get the business ‘open and trading’ again.
Mr Slater said: ‘Everything seems to be going round in circles and nobody seems to know what’s next.
‘We would love to be more involved in a design that suits us. It’s missing a massive opportunity to put something really cool down there.
‘We were happy to pay more rent if we could have more covers. The council planned in 20 more covers but when they got complaints from the hut owners they took the 20 off.’