AFTER remaining empty and unused for several years, plans are currently progressing to utilise the huts located at Par Beach.

The 22 beach huts, which were built by Cornwall Council in 2018 to the tune of £125,000, are situated behind the sand dunes, next to a public toilet block. People who opposed the huts at the time argued they were in the wrong place and not near enough to the beach.

Earlier this year, the row of huts, that had been labelled as a “white elephant” by MP for St Austell and Newquay, Noah Law, were being advertised for let on the market through Vickery Holman.

Back in March, the MP and party colleagues gathered at the beach huts and met with local people to discuss the scheme.

During the visit, Parish councillor Renay Rickard said: “The Par beach huts project is a perfect metaphor for the council’s poor financial planning. This is a complete waste of money - it would be much better closer to the beach. Everyone here is saying the same – the huts are too small to be of any use to anyone, and now they're just deteriorating away.”

Since then, Cllr Ian Wilson has managed to reach an agreement in principal with the council that will hopefully see the huts be put into good use.

He explained: “The huts have remained empty for nearly five years; with no sign they were ever going to be used. After taking office, I was told by Cornwall Council the huts would be removed in September 2025.

“I made it a personal challenge to get the huts in use rather than have even more money wasted removing a perfectly good asset for no good reason, and I managed to get an agreement in principle from Cornwall Council, to get them used.

“My suggestion was to start a pilot project to use them for arts and crafts and/or local produce in order to form a sort of beach style market and hopefully extend this to a Christmas style market in December.

“The plan is to lease the huts out for a nominal cost in return for the huts being maintained and repaired by the users, such that they are returned in at least as good a condition as they were received.

After putting the word out, Mr Wilson received correspondence from several local craftspeople who expressed their interest in using the huts for this purpose.

He has presented this proposal to Cornwall Council and introduced them to several of the craftspeople so that the council can see that this is a serious endeavour.

Cllr Wilson continued: “I am still hopeful I can get this pilot project running this summer, but I have come up against some Cornwall Council huddles over planning and licencing.

“I am still looking for interested parties. If there are craftspeople interested in using a hut, they can email me at [email protected] with the Subject Line “Par Beach Huts”.