Lottery for new beach huts

9:27pm Saturday 3rd May 2008

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First it was school places - now a council is to allocate dozens of new beach huts using a lottery system.

Brighton and Hove City Council has applied to build another 26 beach huts near Hove Lagoon.

And if as expected demand exceeds supply, the new lucky owners will be selected by a random draw.

Beach huts fetch up to £12,000 on the market, and estate agents Callaways, which sells many of the city's shelters, said that demand remains strong.

One beach hut in Suffolk sold for £80,000 last month after going on the market at £65,000.

Estate agent John Weeks said: "They are not going as quickly as last year when money was a bit freer but they are still selling.

"The price depends on the location, but the highest price is about £12,000."

Callaways currently has five beach huts on the market.

The council has submitted two competing planning applications for the same site on the Western Esplanade - one for 26 beach huts and the other for 24 huts and a boat house.

A decision is expected by June 9.

The council owns the land and licences are granted to place a beach hut there.

The licence is £220 and comes with a host of conditions to maintain the colourful seafront buildings.

Owners must be residents of Brighton and Hove and cannot own more than one beach hut.

When the new huts are ready a lottery will be advertised to allow people to register.

The move comes as the council has raised the ground rent it charges owners by up to 20 per cent.

Rents have gone up to between £341 and £585 for prime seafront sites between Hove and Saltdean.

The council has said that Hove's rents remain among the highest because the huts have access to water and electricity.

And the beach hut boom isn't constrained to Brighton, with a further 65 planned for Seaford.

Money has been set aside for a feasibility study into providing more of the huts at Splash Point and between the Martello Tower and Ringmer Road.

But your little slice of seaside does come with risks from high winds.

Hut owners recently found themselves with a £50 charge to remove storm-damaged shelters.

More than 40 shelters in Brighton and Hove were battered by hurricane-force winds that hit Sussex earlier this year.

At least 13 were totally destroyed by the 80mph winds.

Owners were forced to brave the gales and driving rain to retrieve possessions from their wrecked huts.

The council has charged owners £50 to remove what was left of the wooden structures if they did not do it themselves.

Is a lottery the fairest way of handing out beach huts? Tell us what you think below.