Doomed beach huts without a sea view in Cornwall are being removed

THE doomed beach huts without a sea view in Cornwall – which cost the taxpayer £125,000 – are being removed.

Cornwall Council installed the neat row of 22 beach huts at Par Sands seven years.

At the time, local people complained the huts were being located in the wrong place – a green open space behind sand dunes with no view of the sea.

The wooden huts subsequently failed to prove popular and have stood empty for the past few years, with Noah Law (Labour), the MP for St Austell and Newquay, labelling them "a white elephant”.

Last year, the council advertised the huts for commercial let as a business opportunity but the move proved unsuccessful.

In another development, Tywardreath and Par Parish Council said it was offered the huts “with very tight conditions including maintenance of them and told it was a commercial opportunity”.

However, after discussion, the parish councillors agreed that taking on the huts would not be a good use of council funds. The parish council then reported that Cornwall Council was intending to remove the huts.

Meanwhile, Ian Wilson (Reform UK), the Cornwall councillor for Fowey, Tywardreath and Par, who launched an initiative to try to find a use for the huts, said in a report to the parish council: “I had to express my disappointment with Cornwall Council who, at first, seemed interested in working with me to get the Par beach huts in use. Sadly, negotiations broke down, with the council being unable to untie itself from its own bureaucratic knots.

“Sadly, £125,000 of taxpayers’ money has been wasted by Cornwall Council.”

A Cornwall Council spokesperson said: “As the huts at Par beach have not been used for some time and following community feedback, we are removing the huts so they can be refurbished and repurposed at alternative council-owned locations.”