Milford beach hut owners fear eviction by council as coastal erosion worsens

BEACH hut owners at a coastal beauty spot fear they will be kicked off by New Forest District Council as erosion risks worsen.

At Hordle Cliff, near Milford, about 15 owners are understood to be expecting instructions to remove their huts at their own expense.

As reported in the A&T last week, beach closure signs have been put up there by NFDC where the loss of shingle has caused overhangs of more than six feet – putting the structures at risk of toppling over onto passers-by.

The owners of the beach huts, which can cost around £25,000 each, claim that the council has accepted rent worth hundreds of pounds a year from each of them while failing to give proper protection against the elements.

Planning permission is required for new huts. But owners claim they were not informed of the council’s policy of minimal environmental interference there – effectively leaving the wooden structures at the mercy of waves.

After a meeting last week between NFDC officers and the Beach Hut Owners’ Association, several members came away fearing the worsening conditions would lead to the most badly affected eventually being ordered off the site for safety reasons.

An NFDC spokesperson told the A&T nothing had been decided yet.

She said: “We work cooperatively with hut owners and the Beach Hut Owners’ Association to look at the future of huts on this, and other, areas of the coast in the district.

“As part of that, possible future options are discussed and considered, but no decisions have been made.”

Joan Horton Fawkes, from Lymington, owns a beach hut at Hordle Cliff. Although she is not one of those affected by the erosion, she said the prospect of forced removals was “an unacceptable way to treat us”.

Suggestions that owners could secure the huts themselves had been rejected by officers at the meeting as a “waste of time” because of the ongoing nature of the erosion, she said.

Mrs Horton Fawkes went on: “The idea that someone’s property can be removed at the request of NFDC and to say they need us to pay to take them away – what? There’s no space, so where are we going to put them? In a back garden?

“I can’t see how you could have been taking ground rent and people have bought in good faith – and now NFDC are washing their hands of it.”

She suggested some form of compensation for those affected or at least a refund on the ground rent.