DESIGNS for the controversial beach retreats at Highcliffe cliff side will be kept secret until the TV show airs in the autumn.

Plans for the shortlisted beach retreats in Highcliffe were shown to councillors in a private consultation last week.

But the final 12 schemes will stay under wraps until the show appears on Channel Four later this year, the council have confirmed.

It is not known how the designs will be kept hidden from the public once the huts have been erected.

Residents, Christchurch MP Chris Chope and even author Bill Bryson, have hit out over the TV competition between Christchurch council and the producers of George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces to build 12 overnight beach retreats on the SSSi site.

The local authority says a ‘safety screen’ will be put up during the construction process.

The Daily Echo asked the council how long the screen would remain in place and if people were able to see the huts once filming is completed at the end of the summer.

No response had been received at the time of going to press.

Criticism of the competition has centred on the lack of consultation with residents, inappropriateness of the site, and questions over whether the retreats need planning permission.

The council insist the huts can be built under permitted development.

A council spokesperson said: “Members met and considered the shortlisted designs in confidence due to commercial sensitivity.

“Their comments have now been passed onto the production company who will consider them as part of the judging procedure.

“We are confident that the beach huts as proposed are covered by permitted development and therefore do not require planning permission.

“Due to the nature of the competition and the TV programme, the designs will not be made public until the programme is screened in the autumn.”

Former chairman of Christchurch council’s planning committee, Cllr David Jones, said: “I am extremely disturbed by this.

“I think there are a number of grounds on which the beach huts were required planning permission and in any event it would have been open of the council to have applied to itself for outline planning permission.

“This would have enabled the committee to have put in appropriate conditions to protect the area and would have ensured that the matter was discussed openly and transparently.

“For a council whose leadership is supposedly committed to openness and transparency, it is a very disappointing development.”

Chartered surveyor Nigel Brooks, who is part of the Friends opposition group said: “It has been an uphill struggle to find out exactly how the retreats idea came about and why the council thought it was a good idea.

“We hope the council have learnt from this episode that openness and transparency are prerequisites with residents and not the secrecy of dealing with a film company who want to make a programme for Channel 4.”