Wales
Anger as 'rich tourists' buy up beach huts
A community leader has reacted with fury to news that a beach hut has sold for a reported £85,000 in his coastal resort.
The little wooden hut at Abersoch, North Wales, complete with its own stamp-size patch of sand, smashed its guide price of £75,000 when it was bought by a mystery purchaser.
The detached huts regularly sell for thousands at the picturesque stretch despite the economic slow down – and despite them not having running water or electricity.
But the latest sale has incensed Aran Jones, chief executive of Cymuned – which champions locals’ causes in Wales.
Calling for a tax on such sales so residents can benefit, he said: “People who live in Gwynedd are fed up with hearing about these absurd prices for ugly sheds on Abersoch beach while local people cannot afford houses.”
In recent years Mr Jones’s members have protested about the sales on the beach - which is known as Cheshire-on-Sea.
He added: “It is creating a very real sense of injustice and is leading to increased resentment against wealthy tourists.
“If Abersoch beach has become nothing more than a way for the super rich to flaunt their wealth, it is high time that some of the benefits of this honeypot were transferred to local people.
“Gwynedd Council should be in discussion with the Welsh Assembly to look at what would need to be done to impose a beauty spot tax.”
The 12ft by 12ft huts have risen rapidly in value during the last few years.
In 2004 a hut at the picture-postcard Porthmawr, which overlooks Cardigan Bay, sold for £39,500.
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