Beach huts dotted along a particularly affluent stretch of shoreline in Wales have been buried under huge mounds of sand after failing to withstand the elements.
The huts, which can sell for more than £200,000, have been badly affected by high tides and strong winds over the winter, with piles of sand preventing entry in many cases.
Scattered along Porth Mawr beach, the huts are unlikely to be dug out of the dunes until spring, with further bad weather expected in the coming weeks.
Abersoch, a seaside resort in Gwynedd, Wales, is a holiday hotspot popular with celebrities and has been dubbed “Cheshire-on-Sea” for its appeal to A-listers such as Bear Grylls and Colleen Rooney.
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Buying a beach hut on Abersoch’s Porth Mawr beach comes with a hefty price tag, much like purchasing a home in the former fishing village itself.
Property prices in the area are among the highest in Wales, averaging around £585,000.
Tourist group Abersoch.com said: “Every winter, Abersoch beach takes a battering from storms, with the beach huts taking the full force and needing to be properly dug out again in spring.
“Looking at it this year, does anyone else think it’s worse than usual?”
Entering many of the beach huts is not currently possible without some heavy digging
|ABERSOCH.COM
One local commented: “I’ve dug out eaves-high wind-blown sand before, back in the 1980s.
“It varies, as do the sand ledge and pebble ‘underlay’.
“The worse the weather from the east during winter — and there’s been quite a lot of it, and quite early too — the more disruption occurs.
“If the weather’s fair from now until Easter, much of the sand would be rearranged by Mother Nature.”
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Some of the huts sell for £250,000
|ABERSOCH.COM
Another social media user said: “It used to take all day to dig ours out, but that looks particularly bad.”
In previous years, high tides and driving winds have damaged and even toppled some huts.
Last month, angry beach hut owners elsewhere united to threaten legal action against their local authority over plans to charge them full council tax.
The huts on Mudeford Spit were targeted by Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council as a way to boost income by classing them as second homes.
Some of the beach hut doors are not even visible
|ABERSOCH.COM
This would mean owners having to pay full council tax, despite the huts having no toilets, no mains electricity, and only being suitable for sleeping in for half the year.
Under the council’s proposed rules, beach huts would be placed in band A, meaning owners would pay £1,503 a year in tax.
Mudeford Sandbank Beach Hut Association chairman Darren Pidwell said legal action was being considered.
“We are considering the legal basis for the application of council tax on what is a wooden shed with no mains connections or individual toilet facilities,” he said.
A BCP Council spokesman said that of the 344 huts at Mudeford, 231 are owned by people living outside the area.
Mike Cox, cabinet member for finance, said: “The council must use all levers at its disposal to raise funds to protect essential services important to our residents.
“Beach huts on Mudeford Spit often sell for between £400,000 and £575,000 — more than the £313,000 average price of a home in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole.
“I understand their pain. It is a significant increase in percentage terms, but it is a relatively small amount of money compared with the value of the property they are sitting on.”
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