NEW beach huts in Felixstowe could prove a goldmine for their owners as it has been revealed that some of the seaside chalets are for sale for up to £10,000.

NEW beach huts in Felixstowe could prove a goldmine for their owners as it has been revealed that some of the seaside chalets are for sale for up to £10,000.

And if Suffolk Coastal's proposals to create another 29 sites succeed, the race will be on to secure the pitches from the council.

One front row hut is up for sale at Brackenbury Cliffs for £10,000 and there is another on a terrace south of The Dip for £7,500. On other parts of the seafront the average is £4,000.

Owners – who pay around £400 a year to the council as rent for the land – will be required to buy their own hut and place it on the site, but could then sell it on for thousands of pounds more and make a tidy profit.

The tenancies are usually then switched to the new hut owner.

But residents in the area are angry about the proposals to create another 29 sites and even erected their own during a council visit to show councillors the error of their ways.

Residents living near The Dip in Cliff Road claim the huts will block a path, be sited dangerously, be visible from some homes, and will ruin their quality of life with increased noise, rubbish and rats.

Councillors visited the site to see where the huts will go, look at measurements for the pitches and heights of the huts, and assess the impact on the area.

Residents constructed a frame to show the huts' height and marked pitches on the ground. They were dismayed the council's planning officers' height measurements did not take into account the eight inches of blocks huts rest on.

Ivan Jowers, chairman of the south area development control sub committee, said the site visit was not an opportunity for residents to put their views to councillors. A final decision would be made in public next month.

He said: "This is an opportunity for us to see on the ground what is going on and look at the facts – it is not an opportunity for debate."

John Hatcher, of Cliff Road, said: "We have measured where they want to put a new terrace of huts – which will remove a public path – and there is not enough room to do it without cutting quite a way back into the bank.

"When people open their hut doors they will be over the steps right in front and that could be dangerous.

"There will be nowhere for them to put chairs out and so they will then block the path at the bottom of the steps. It is ridiculous."

Planning officers said the council has a high demand for beach huts in Felixstowe and the sites were "an acceptable location".

Officers say the sites will bring in extra income. They expect the huts to be standard sized and not quite as large as residents expect.

n. Do you think the cost of the beach huts is too high? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN or email eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk