"Super" beach huts need repainting - only a year after they were installed (From Bournemouth Echo)

"Super" beach huts need repainting - only a year after they were installed

1:30pm Tuesday 9th March 2010 in

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TWO dozen “super” beach huts overlooking one of Bournemouth’s Blue Flag beaches are having to be repainted, a year after being installed.

The 24 huts of the Purbeck View development at Alum Chine attracted protests at the planning stage because they were built on the site of a children’s paddling pool.

But a water play area was incorporated into the scheme and the first of the 11 ft by 8ft prefabricated huts hoisted into place in March last year.

Nine were snapped up quickly, with buyers paying out just under £40,000 – £34,000 plus £5,500 VAT – for a 25-year lease. Owners also have to pay ground rent of several hundred pounds a year.

But a year on, nine of the New England-style wooden huts are still empty and apparently in need of urgent attention.

Bournemouth seafront development manager Chris Saunders explained: “It is always a possibility that we will need to undertake work to maintain beach huts due to the harsh marine environment.

“The Alum Chine beach huts have been in place for up to 18 months and we have started to notice that the knots in the wood are starting to show through in some places. This is as a result of wear and tear and may also be due, in part, to a different finish that we trialled for the beach huts. We are therefore repainting them so that they are in excellent condition in time for the Easter holidays.”