Beach hut tenants have hit back at council plans to kick them out after five years.

Brighton and Hove City Council is changing its policy on its 105 brick-built seaside chalets from Hove to Saltdean.

With a waiting list of 113 people, which has been closed since 2003, the council has decided to scrap its policy of a beach hut for life and introduce five-year fixed term tenancies.

But tenants claim they have invested time and money in the chalets and are angry they have not been consulted on a decision which is likely to be rubber-stamped at a council meeting next week.

Nigel Heasman, 44, has rented a chalet in Saltdean for the past nine years with his wife and two children.

He said: “It is outrageous the council can just announce these plans to force us out without even asking us. This is a real community that is used by everyone from children to pensioners.

“If the council has so many people on the waiting list they should build more beach huts.”

Pensioner Sylvia Rowley, who also rents a chalet at Saltdean, said: “I was on the waiting list for nine years, while I was acting as a carer for my husband and mother. Now I am on my own and it is the time of my life when I most want friendly faces around me. Now the council wants to take that away.”

Cabinet member for culture, recreation and tourism, David Smith, said: “We appreciate the concerns of existing tenants and that’s why instead of asking people to leave after two months, which is the time limit set out in the tenancy agreement, we are giving them at least two years.”