Work is underway to give the greatly used public shelters along Felixstowe’s seafront a much-needed facelift.

Suffolk Coastal District Council owns six shelters – three brick-built and three timber – along the prom and four are currently being refurbished and redecorated.

TJ Haworth-Culf, cabinet member with responsibility for customers, communities and leisure, said: “We have received many comments about the poor state of the shelters and recognise the role they play in supporting the tourism economy within Felixstowe.

“So we have allocated £30,000 to carry out repairs and redecoration on these shelters. We apologise for any inconvenience the work may cause in the short-term, but this urgent refurbishment will make the shelters more appealing and welcoming to visitors along the seafront.

“This obviously dovetails with the other work that has been carried out, such as creating the Seafront Events Area on the site of the derelict boating lake, supporting the development of Martello Park with its play areas and improved facilities, and the multi-million pound Seafront Gardens refurbishment.”

“We are seeing a package of improvements across the resort, investing in the future prosperity of Felixstowe and making a more appealing place for visitors and local people alike.”

Work includes replacement of rotten timbers, windows, guttering and downpipes, seating slats and redecoration.

The programme of work includes the all-wooden Jubilee shelter, the brick-built Orford Road, Arcade and Bath Tap shelters.

The repair and redecoration will continue into August. It is part of Suffolk Coastal’s capital programme, which seeks to make the best of the council’s assets in one of the regions popular tourist destinations.

Councillors will be asked in the autumn to provide finance for work on the final two shelters, all-timber ones at Arwela and Manwick. These are both in very poor condition, because of timber decay and long-term vandalism damage and require substantial investment to carry out the necessary repairs to them.

The council’s operational partners, Suffolk Coastal Norse, has a team of three staff currently undertaking the work.

The toilets in the Spa pavilion will also be redecorated shortly, as part of the on-going improvement work.