Council leader booed by members of public at meeting over TV beach huts

Christchurch council’s scrutiny committee, tasked with investigating the controversial TV beach retreats at Highcliffe, held a special meeting to question top officers and council members.

Head of community and leisure, Judith Plumley said production company Plum Pictures approached the council about the project, after filming at Mudeford Sandbank in 2015.

She said Plum Pictures asked about other projects “in the pipeline” and “suggested the possibility of a competition to design unique beach huts to be located somewhere in the area.”

However, an email read out by Cllr David Jones, sent to a resident from Paula Carter, director of planning at Channel Four, states the council approached Plum Pictures about the scheme.

Asked to respond, leader of the council, Ray Nottage, who had earlier been booed by members of the public for not answering some previous questions, said it was “the first time I have heard of such a thing.”

In a meeting last month, Cllr Nottage suggested the idea for Highcliffe beach retreats was something which arose out of a residents forum, A Vision for Highcliffe.

But former councillor and chairman of Highcliffe Centre Partnership, Malcolm Mawbey disputed this saying: “There was only one active response, ‘no, we don’t want beach huts’.

“When we ranked a number of ideas, beach huts came the bottom of our ranking system; the top was to improve to path down to the beach.”

He added: “I didn’t think there was sufficient support to go ahead without consultation; it was asking for trouble.”

The meeting heard that at a previous panel, ward councillor Vicky Hallam, said people were “supportive of the idea of beach huts and (she) got a general feeling that this was a positive response.”

It was also revealed council members will not be allowed to see the terminated contract, which was signed by chief executive David McIntosh.

A final report will be brought to the next scrutiny meeting on November 15.