Would you like to own or rent a beach hut on Saltdean seafront? Please tell us what you think…
On Dec 1 2010 The Argus ran this story about B&H council proposing to introduce 5-year leases for beach huts. These fixed term leases would replace the current indefinite lease policy which means that people can have a beach hut for life even though many other people are waiting.
http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/8710720.No_beach_hut_for_life_in_Brighton_and_Hove/
It’s clear that many people would like to have beach hut and there aren’t enough to go round. We have been lobbying the council for some time to consider the options.
In July 2010 we asked Brighton and Hove Council two things:
1. to investigate if all the leases for the existing 40 beach huts have been allocated
2. if more beach huts can be built in Saltdean
There are 20 concrete beach huts to the east of Saltdean tunnel and 20 between Saltdean and Rottingdean. The leases are for an indefinite period and the waiting list closed in 2003!
On July 5 2010 David Smith, one of the councillors for Saltdean and Rottingdean, advised by email that ‘The council is already looking at further sites to put beach huts after the successful sale of 17 on the seafront at Hove Lagoon. If Saltdean is
not on the list. I will ask for that area to be considered”.
When we asked again on Sept 4 Mr Smith wrote that no progress had been made by BHCC in drawing up the initial list.
What do you think? Would you like to see more beach huts in Saltdean?
I would LOVE a beach hut in Saltdean. I walked down there today with my dog and thought how lovely it would be to sit out with a nice glass of wine on a nice evening! Hopefully, this can be sorted out so that they are available again.
My wife and I would be very interested in a beach hut for the use with our children and grandchildren, we have approached the Brighton Council on many occasions over the years only to be told there is a ten year waiting list. We would make full use of it at every opportunity unlike many others down there who only use their huts once or twice during the course of the year.
My husband and I would love a beach hut.
I would like to buy a beach hut. I swim daily in the sea and it would be useful
i should very much like to rent a beach hut at saltdean. as a keen “prawner” on the local rocks a hut would be very useful. however, in the current economic climate i should imagine that airborne swine are more likely to be seen in saltdean than new beach huts !
tony stuart
Yes we would love the chance to rent or buy a beach hut, when our family come to see us it would be so nice for us all to have a venue by the sea and spend days down there. good luck with the quest and I hope we can have more of them.
As a current tenant of a beach chalet at Saltdean (No,1 of 20), I can assure everyone in the S.R.A. that these chalets are all used on a regular basis throughout the year. Some are occupied by pensioners who visit daily (weather permitting) and others by families at weekends and in school holidays. There isn’t one that is not used less than 50 days a year. Some have invested hundreds of pounds fitting out the interiors and securing the doors with metal plates and high grade locks & hinges, following a spate of break-ins. It is not until recently that the Council has deemed to carry out much needed repairs to the fabric of the building, we had no gutters at the back and damp was coming through the back walls creating mildew on anything left inside. Most of us waited on a list for 5 years or more before we became tenants, because of mismanagement by the Council and connivance by the then chalet tenants to keep empty chalets for their own use and deny families with children from occupying them. This has now changed and we are all one big happy family who feel privileged to have the use of this amenity.
Hello Ken – I am a member of the SRA committee though I am posting here in a personal capacity. There are only 40 beach huts in Saltdean. There are literally hundreds of people who would like to have one. How do you suggest the council ensures that the existing beach huts are shared fairly?
I understand that the council’s plans mean that existing lease holders will have their beach huts for another two years. You are so so lucky. I would be ecstatic to have one for two years.
The beach huts should be available for ALL residents in Saltdean, not just the lucky few who ‘got in first’. It is clearly discrimination against newer residents. I find it quite disgusting that residents who have had the beach huts for a vast number of years feel that it is ‘their right’ to have a beach hut indefinitely. Others would like one too! Haven’t you heard of sharing?!
We walk the Undercliff most days. While clearly a minority of beach huts are well kept and used regularly, many seem to be pretty much deserted with padlocks rusted over time. I cannot believe that 50 days use a year represents good value for any of us – no wonder there are break-ins. Surely more equitable and efficient use of the facility for the remaining 315 days a year could be agreed?
What has not been understood about the ill conceived proposal for a revised tenancy policy is that those residents of Saltdean on the Lewes side (east of Longridge Avenue) would be denied from applying as a prospective tenant as they do not reside within the local Brighton & Hove City catchment area. Therefore, half of Saltdean living within walking distance of the beach chalets could never become tenants.
There are only 20 (brick built) chalets in Saltdean, 30 in Rottingdean & 10 in Ovingdean. Apart from rebuilding the Ovingdean chalets as part of the Undercliff regeneration scheme, maintenance and repairs (by B&H City Council) to the remainder has been minimal (almost non-existent) until October this year following numerous letters of complaint from tenants over the past 10 years or more.
There is plenty of available space to build more chalets or provide beach hut plots between Ovingdean and Saltdean, to satisfy the demand.
The vagaries of the English climate restricts use for much of the year, so realistically a possible 50 days out of say 200 is nearly every weekend when the weather is fine.
I fully support the building of new chalets/beach huts/flying saucers…………
seriously, Ken makes excellent points, eg: that those residents of Saltdean on the Lewes side (east of Longridge Avenue) would be denied from applying for a hut —
note the web-site for those in Madearia Drive –
note the outcome of the meeting which drove through a partial new lease and left the current tenants with a ” consultation exercise on amending the policy for letting beach chalets to existing tenants. The aim of the consultation exercise being to reduce the long standing waiting lists.”
note that the report on which the decision was made was seriously flawed……
http://present.brighton-hove.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=152&MId=2866
i hesitate to note Churchill’s rhetoric about beaches…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkTw3_PmKtc
My wife and I have rented a beach hut for some years, we were on the waiting list for 12. When we were allocated a hut, it was in a terrible condition, sqatters had almost destroyed the doors and the inside was a mess with graffity all over the walls excrement on the floor and several used needles mixed in with bedding and rotten food. The condition of the new lease was that the hut must be completely renovated at our own expence, £243.70p spent on the doors alone. Also a local resident, I find the local residents association carrying out a campaign to out existing hut occupiers in favour of their members. We are all rate payers and deserve just as much consideration if not more from the council. Whilst carrying out some maitenance over the christmas period, I was approached by two walkers who told me that they had already applied to your organisation for my hut, it was them that told me about this web site. I would urge any hut occupiers who read this to contact Jane pinnock at Brighton and Hove city coucil and tell her their views. Mike.
Thank you for commenting on the Saltdean Residents Associations discussion about the changes to the Beach Hut licenses.
Can I say that the Association supports the councils intention to stop granting leases for an indefinite period. We would also want to encourage the council to provide more huts. A fairer policy will ensure that more people will have the opportunity to benefit from the use of a hut but obviously for a shorter period of time.
Having said this can I assure you that the Association has no say in how licenses will be granted. Consequently it is not correct to say that we are campaigning to oust existing hut occupiers in favour of our members. I agree that we all have an equal right to this facility. Furthermore nobody can “apply” to the Association so I’m afraid that what you were told by the people that you spoke to was wrong.
Thank you again for commenting and I agree that people should write to the council and and their councillors with their views.
Laurence O’Connor
Acting Chair, Saltdean Residents Association
More information provided by Roy on his Madeira Drive 23 Chalets blog:
Click on this link:
http://madeiradrivechalet.blogspot.com/
Very informative.
I love living this close to such a fantastic coastline.
Yes Please! to more beach huts – I have a family and it would be great to pack our hut with canoes/fishing gear to get even more use out of the proximity to the sea.
It is deplorable to see all those unused and deteriorating beach huts, which add to the tatty appearance of parts of the seafront at Rottingdean, Saltdean and beyond. And it is unfair on those who would like to rent one. Do Brighton and Hove only care about their own seafront? It is also deplorable that the Undercliff Walk is now interrupted behind the Marina, forcing one to walk through… the Marina carpark!
RE: CURRENT SURVEY (see my blog)
“I spoke to Cllr. David Smith yesterday (Wed.) by phone, in reply to an e-mail — he assures me that the survey is just the start of a dialogue, in which reps. from each of the 5 areas will meet with the council to discuss the matters raised…….
My ward Cll. Paul Steedman (Green) and Cllr. Melanie Davies (Lab. Spokesperson on Seafront Matters) both assured me that they would promote my view of the new status quo (viz: new tenants get 5 yrs., sitting tenants stay as they are with no attempt to evict) and to ensure meaningful dialogue with reps. to progress positive ways to reduce the perceived (no real evidence has been submitted) “long standing waiting lists.”"
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I made a formal complain about this survey viz: “The Beach Chalet Letting Policy Survey has been limited to 28/01/11 09:00 to 11/02/11 17:00 — the letter to tenants has only delivered on feb 4th. — this breaches standard policy for the time allowed to duration — and no pre-consultation with tenants as to introductory remarks or content of questions.:”
I had my conversation with Cllr David Smith after submitting my complaint. I am thus hopeful that meaningful dialogue will continue.
Having said that, though, the issue (viz: those residents of Saltdean on the Lewes side (east of Longridge Avenue) would be denied from applying for a hut ) is buried in the survey question 3 that emphasises ” Do you think NON Brighton & Hove residents with existing tenancies should be allowed to continue to rent a chalet?” –
that is a disgraceful leading question, as many “Brighton & Hove residents” do not realise that East Saltdean is NOT in B&H.
That parochial agenda carefully fails to mention that much of B&H Council budget provides services to NON Brighton & Hove residents eg parking! A simple extension to the boundaries allowing leaseholders to include East Saltdean post codes would be sufficient to temper that parochialism.
I find it appalling that these people who have beach huts think its there right to keep them. Two people I spoke to on Friday who rent a beach hut in Ovingdean sat there very smugly saying that we would never get a beach hut as these belong to the people and stay with them for life. It is totally unfair that these people think that they can keep the beach huts for life. I have been going to Ovingdean beach for years whenever the weather is hot. I never see all of them occupied. I think either they should do a new thing where 3 people share a beach hut for certain months of the year over a 5 year period so they all get a turn in the summer or they change the tenancies every 3 years. So it gives people with young families a chance. I cannot wait for the council to bring this policy in so everyone gets a fair chance of renting a beach hut and these people that currently rent them can be put on the other side of the fence to see what it’s like wanting a turn to rent a beach hut.