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Sunday 12 July 2015

The Beach Huts are no more

It is all change on the Milford on Sea seafront since the destruction of the beach huts in St Valentine’s Day Storm in February 2014.

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The NFDC council have now completely removed the remaining beach huts leaving a bare slab base. It is also pleasing to see the end of the ugly mesh fencing, which has now been replaced with a more pleasant barrier.

So what next? - Well, we understand that the process to replace the beach huts slowly rumbles on.

An extended 'public procurement' process, started in December with an announcement to contractors tender for the contract to rebuild the beach huts in the Journal of the European Union. This has now been completed.

Also, Design Consultants have now been selected to produce proposed layout of the huts' terraces plus the construction and appearance of the replacement huts. This will lead towards a detailed Planning Application this autumn. The consultants will also be involved in the formal specification for the new huts, the tenders for their construction and supervision of the building work.

The identity of the winning contenders to rebuild the beach huts is embargoed until they formally accept their engagement. The company selected is an international engineering consultancy with a wealth of coastal experience and local offices. They will get design support from Hampshire based artitects. The NFDC expect to meet the firms next week for initial discussions and the council will then issue a press release identifying the firms concerned. 

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It is intended that there will again be 119 huts to the east of The White House. The specification says that each hut should be of a similar size to the huts now demolished and will not be allowed to be any taller than previously. Presentations from civil engineers, artitects etc were received by the NFDC 'Milford on Sea Beach Hut Board' and all leant towards construction composed of precast concrete components. It is expected that this will be the chosen form of building.

It is understood that rebuilding work will not commence until 2016.

2 comments:

  1. the "concrete" preference you describe sounds horribly depressing. Wouldnt it be lovely to have the old eye sores replaced by something more attractive and also conducive to an unobstructed sea views for those on the path above? Let's hope concrete is not the answer and we get something more attractive - like the wonderful milford beach huts up for an award in your third story

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  2. It would be nice for the walkers on the promenade to enjoy the view and not just the occupiers of the beach huts and please can we not build concrete bunkers.

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