The Head of Environment and Leisure introduced the report which outlined the draft Beach Hut Policy 2023 for any suggested amendments before it went out to public consultation. The Policy also included future development plans in two phases and sought approval to proceed with Phase 1. He said there was a slight change to recommendation (2) in the report to read; ‘That the Tender of the additional beach huts (12 at Minster Leas and 14 at Leysdown Coastal Park) be agreed and that delegation be given to the Head of Environment and Leisure and Director of Resources, in consultation with the Chair of Regeneration and Property Committee to award the contract subject to remaining within the allocated capital budget (£120,000)’.

The Chair invited Members to make comments, which included:

·           It was good to see a policy for the beach huts come forward;

·           could beach huts be installed on the sea defence walls on Sheerness beachfront?;

·           facilities on existing sites needed improving;

·           28 days was too long for a sale or transfer for a beach hut and could it be reduced to 5 days?;

·           £30 charge was needed to be placed on the waiting list;

·           pleased to see that Phase 1 was being proposed, but concerned that residents of beach huts were not consulted on the proposed future developments;

·           more thought needed to go into where the beach huts for Phase 2 would be placed to ensure they were not too close to current beach huts;

·           could the wording on page 18, 2.13 of the licence in terms of BBQ areas be changed to be clearer on where beach hut users could have a BBQ?;

·           could officers look into short-term leases for residents so it became more affordable for people in the borough to rent beach huts?;

·           the date that payment was collected needed to be clearer in the licence;

·           could officers consider the option for owners of beach huts could be used to sub-let, as this would mean the beach huts all year round?; and

·           thought that 5 clear working days was long enough for people to sell or transfer their beach huts.

The Head of Environment and Leisure responded to say that officers had considered the placement of beach huts along Sheerness beach front but they struggled with vandalism to other assets already in that area, so it was not yet a suitable location to place beach huts. He added that the policy discussed that a specialist BBQ area could be implemented at various sites for people to have a BBQ and that he would update the beach hut licences to reflect the condition that this would only be in a specific location if provided. Members felt this should not be included. 

With regards to the 28 days for a resident to accept a sale offer, the Head of Environment and Leisure said that this was in place to allow residents enough time to consider and accept the offer if they were away and involved substantial costs for the purchaser. He recommended that if Members wanted to change the length of time someone was given to accept an offer that it should be a minimum of 14 days. He added that officers had considered the option of short-term leasing some beach huts to residents by including a weekly charge in this year’s fees and charges and that the best approach would be to trial one beach hut at a time at each location. He said that page 21 of the policy already referred to this.

The Head of Environment and Leisure said that the payment date for the year was set out in the annual letters/invoices but the would look to update the licences for the future. With feedback from other local authorities, he did not suggest the option to sub-let as there had had been problems with people not following the correct policies and has caused many authorities issues with vandalism to beach huts. He referred to an incident that occurred at Herne Bay sea front that saw several beach huts being burnt down.

Resolved:

(1)   That the Draft Beach Hut Policy subject to the amends as minuted to go out to public consultation, be approved.

(2)   That the Tender of the additional beach huts (12 at Minster Leas and 14 at Leysdown Coastal Park) be agreed and that delegation be given to the Head of Environment and Leisure and the Director of Resources, in consultation with the Chair of the Regeneration and Property Committee to award the contract subject to remaining within the allocated capital budget (£120,000).