Poole's £3.6m beach hut plan approved

People are waiting up to 20 years to secure their dream beach hut on the Poole seafront

Councillors in Poole have approved £3.6m plans to build almost 200 new beach huts on the seafront.

Poole Borough Council approved the 178 new huts and repairs to 131 existing huts at a meeting on Tuesday evening.

Xena Dion, cabinet portfolio holder for culture and leisure, said the new huts would help meet the "huge demand" for them.

In some cases there is a 20-year waiting list, with more than 1,300 prospective beach hut tenants.

It is estimated the new beach huts will generate a net income of about £206,000 a year.

Pending consultation, they could be completed by July 2017.

At present, people after a hut anywhere along Poole's coastline face a minimum wait of 12 years - with an estimated 20-year wait for beach huts in Sandbanks.

Where the huts will go

• Sandbanks - Six new huts to be built as second storey above existing units

• Flaghead Chine - 12 new huts

• Canford Cliffs West - 107 new huts built on existing blocks

• Canford Cliffs East - 45 new huts built on existing blocks

• Branksome West - Four new huts

• Branksome Dene - Four new huts

The huts will be built and refurbished out of season to minimise disruption to existing tenants.

In the past year Poole council has already built 70 new additional huts along the beach between Sandbanks and Branksome Dene.

The council's website crashed due to a surge of enquiries when the waiting list reopened last year.