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According to Bournemouth Echo

SEVERAL beach huts collapsed into a ten-foot crater which opened up along a New Forest seafront.

The huts in Milford-on-Sea fell into a large hole below the concrete walkway just two days before emergency works were due to start at the seaside spot.

New Forest District Council was due to start work on the weakened sea wall yesterday after a groyne closest to the Whitehouse on Hurst Road collapsed on Tuesday last week.

But Mother Nature proved to be more powerful and after a high tide on Saturday night coupled with extreme wave overtopping, the beach huts at the end of the row close to the Whitehouse fell into a large void below them the following morning.

Steve Cook, coastal engineer at New Forest District Council, said: “We are bringing in two tonnes of shingle and rock to protect the wall and raise the level of the beach to prevent the structure being battered any further. There will be an investigation to assess the concrete structure once the area has been made safe.”

thanks to Tim for the headsup.

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The Bournmouth Echo reports

FOR almost half a century the Cotterills have been packing their buckets and spades and heading for Bournemouth beach.

Every summer the family book the same beach hut and stay in the same bed and breakfast in Alum Chine, keeping up an August bank holiday tradition started by grandparents Maureen, 73, and Charlie, 82.

Come rain or shine, the family of eight travel to the Dorset coast from Stoke on Trent for their annual summer getaway.

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Edp24 reports

As a child Michael Whitaker played on Southwold beach and took shelter in the family beach hut, just as his father, his grandmother and his great-grandfather did.

The beach hut was a humble fisherman’s hut in his great-grandfather’s day, and a hut on the very same site stayed in the family for 100 years - since before Southwold had a promenade or even a pier.

In 1986 it was sold, but now after a gap of more than 20 years, the hut is back in the family again. It has been rebuilt over the years - most recently this year, after it was damaged in storms last November - but still stands on the same site as Arthur Benjamin Smith’s hut.

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Well considering the downturn on beach huts the other day.

The daily post reports

Beach huts from verymissberry

A BEACH hut with its own patch of sand was snapped up for a staggering £85,000 by a mystery buyer.

The hut, which has no running water or electricity, lies on the beach in the sought-after coastal resort of Abersoch.

The sale of plot 12 at Porthmawr, described as a “detached beach hut on Abersoch main beach lying amidst a row of similar huts along the wonderful stretch of sandy beach which overlooks Cardigan Bay to the St Tudwal’s Islands”, for a record price comes despite the downturn in property prices.

Last night rural communities pressure group Cymuned called for a “beauty-spot tax” so that the local community will benefit from the huts.

Estate agent spokesman Martin Lewthwaite of Beresford Adams Countrywide, Abersoch, confirmed the hut was sold to an anonymous buyer prior to an auction in Llandudno next week but refused to confirm the sale price.

He said: “The hut was sold for substantially more than the guide price of £75,000. The buyers wanted the use of the hut during the main summer season. Prices for these huts are holding up very well, there is always a demand for huts on the beach.

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The Times reports

Mudeford Beach huts by Nick Horne

Mudeford Spit Beach huts, once derided as glorified sheds where elderly couples stored their deck chairs, gained new status in recent years as they soared in price. Now, however, their value is falling faster than a dead seagull.

ome of the most popular were those on Mudeford Spit, a ribbon of white sand extending into Christchurch harbour in Dorset. Wooden huts would change hands for the price of a decent house elsewhere, despite a £30,000 “transfer fee” imposed by the local council. The huts, however, have proved to be a barometer for Britain’s economy. Within a few months of the start of the credit crunch the price of a Mudeford beach hut has plummeted by a third. Huts that would have changed hands for more than £150,000 a year ago are barely making £90,000, including the £30,000 fee. Normally, up to 20 of the 344 huts at Mudeford change hands each year. This year, however, only five have sold.

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The shed friendly Telegraph reports.

A beach hut at one of the Queen’s favourite seaside beauty spots is on the market for £45,000.

The hut, which has no mains electricity, gas or water and cannot sleep people overnight, is so expensive because it is the first one to come up for sale in more than five years at Holkham, Norfolk.

The Royal family had a hut in woodland overlooking the beach for around 70 years until it was burned down by vandals in 2003.

Prince Philip also liked to cook barbecues on the veranda of the Royal hut and sometimes slept overnight in its bunk beds.

But the Royals have visited less in recent years since a nearby section of the sandy beach was made an official nudists’ beach.

The latest hut is being sold by estate agents Belton Duffey.

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When I came up with this category I hoped we would be flooded with the wonderful “Sheds by the Sea” ie beach huts, there are on a few of them but our Beach hut expert won’t be twiddling her fingers as there are some great other sheds to wossname, but ones we the the other huts are a wonderful collection, be it Shepard huts, Nissen or offshore Beachhut wannabes.

Here is a taste of my favourites, but of course you get voting for as many as you want.

Harry the Hut.

The Nissen Hut

Point of Polaris

The Plot Thickens

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Further to this about Beachhuts being removed from Teighmouth, the same council Teignbridge has introduced 15 huts at Dawlish Warren, strange, they give with one hand and take away with another.

Image from Flickr -terry-

An icon of the British coast is making a return to a Devon seaside town after a 20-year absence.

Fifteen beach huts have been officially unveiled by Teignbridge Council on the promenade at Dawlish Warren.

Eleven are being offered on three-year leases, with three for weekly or daily hire. One hut will be used for storage. It is hoped that the locally-built brightly coloured huts, with views over Lyme Bay, will add to the resort’s appeal to tourists.

The town’s previous huts on the site - which were privately owned - were removed about 20 years ago after falling into disrepair.

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you would think the council would cash in on the beachhut prize bonanza? This is southdevon reports.

Beach hut owners were ‘devastated’ today at Teignbridge Council proposals to sell the land under their huts which have been handed down through generations of Teignmouth families.The huts at Back Beach in Teignmouth overlook the estuary, and the land they are on could be sold for hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Teignbridge Council, owner of the land which houses 12 huts, says it doesn’t need the land and has included it on its asset disposal list.

Shaldon-based ferry boat operator James Trout, also owns a beach hut on council land.

“Our beach hut was owned by my great, great, uncle and has been in the family since the early 1900s. I am very cheesed off about the whole thing.

“These huts have been handed down through generations. We are not absolutely certain the council has the ownership of the sand they are on.

“We have tried to buy the land for years from the council but there has been no communication.

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The telegraph reports on the financial wossname of getting a beachhut

Forget the villa in Tuscany or the mansion in Marbella. Now the credit crisis is biting, it may make sense to keep your holiday property day dreams closer to home.

After years of soaring prices, the cost of beach huts is falling back to earth. This is a most discretionary form of property ownership – nobody needs a beach hut – and is proving an early victim of recessionary fears. Strike a deal with someone who needs a quick sale and you could snap up a once-in-a-generation bargain.

They also give some good tips

TEN WAYS TO MAKE A HOLIDAY HOME PAY

1. Rent it out.
Overnight-stay beach huts can rent for between £250 and £500 a week, and holiday homes for significantly more.

2. Cut the cost of expenses.
Rental income is taxable, but you can offset the cost of any expenses against tax. This includes the cost of a mortgage, plus council tax, management fees and maintenance costs.

3. Let the taxman pay your mortgage.
It is possible to defray your expenses, including any mortgage, not just against rental income, but your other earnings, taking a big slice out of your tax bill.

4. Cut borrowing costs
Extend your own mortgage rather than taking on new debt.

5. Follow the 75 per cent rule.
If taking out a new mortgage for a second home, spread debt between two properties so that each has a deposit of 25 per cent. This will keep rates low.

6. Special holiday let loans.
You won’t get a mortgage for a beach hut but it should be possible to qualify for a normal mortgage for most other holiday homes.

7. Plan cashflow carefully.
Remember income only comes in a few months of the year.

8. Cut council tax bills
Get any discount for part-year occupancy.

9. Get your insurance right
You need a special holiday or second home policy, because it is empty for a large part of the year.

10. Cut your capital gains tax bill.
It is possible to cut CGT bills by switching your primary residence, on which no tax is due, between properties, provided you write to HMRC instructing which is your primary residence shortly after acquiring a new property.

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HUTS have always had a certain fascination for Judi Hill. She has a hut in the garden of her home in Alnmouth in Northumberland, and a beach hut at nearby Boulmer.

Yesterday, Judi unveiled the latest hut in her collection – and which can claim to be the smallest heritage centre in the North East.

The 9ft by 7ft hut, which is around a century old, was used by the ferryman who would row people across the estuary of the River Aln at Alnmouth.

The last ferryman, John Brown, is believed to have stopped working in the 1960s.

She decided to kit out the hut as a mini-museum with photographs of John Brown, the ferrymen who preceded him, called John Earle, various images of old Alnmouth fishermen, information about the ferry, and assorted memorabilia.

She won a grant from the Northumberland Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Partnership, which paid for repairs to the structure.

Yesterday there was a champagne opening for the hut-cum-heritage centre.
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Is it me or are beachuts (or sheds by the sea as I call them) getting very sexy this summer

Well looking at the new M & S advert with the lovely Myleene Klass and Noemie Lenoir the cost of beach huts will go up and up, you can see the video here, but not sure Twiggy perving on them through Coin Operated Binoculars will do M & S any good!

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