Waiting lists for beach huts in Whitby, Scarborough and Filey closed by council as demand rises Yorkshire News

The seaside getaway has been a tradition on shorelines across the country for years and generations of families have headed to the beach armed with picnic tables, thermoses, buckets, shovels and sandwich baskets for healthy and affordable days out. .

Between Whitby, Scarborough South Bay and Filey there are several hundred colorful log cabins, but they have become so sought after that even before the Christmas season begins, there are waiting lists for hordes of locals and tourists wanting to rent one. they have already been closed for 2022.

Some have been set aside for daily or weekly use, but the demand for annual and ongoing rentals has increased so much that Scarborough City Council, which manages the cottages, decided it was best to stop accepting applications, some of which have been going on for years. .

“Some weekly summer rentals (and in rare cases daily rentals) are available, but due to high demand each year, they must be booked in advance.”

It costs £17 for a Whitby beach hut for the day off-peak and £679 for the season between May and September. The newer beach huts are £1435.

In Scarborough a week at peak times would cost £186 and if you manage to get one for the year the price is just under £1150.

Filey’s beach huts are £35 a day in the height of summer and from £1,015 for an annual rental.

However, in other parts of the country, as the demand for vacation homes continues to increase, beach cottages can be worth more than the average townhouse.

A report last year said the average cost of buying a beach hut rose from £25,578 to £36,034 in a year.

However, this week’s property listings show a beach hut for sale in Brackenbury Cliffs, Felixstowe for £55,000 and another on Avon Beach in Mudeford near Dorset for offers above £95,000.

Last month, SBC agreed to spend £380,000 restoring historic villas in the city as part of a wider bid to regenerate the area.

The original Grade II listed chalets were damaged, or had to be demolished for safety reasons, when a retaining wall collapsed in 2018 and now that repairs have been completed, proposals for 10 new chalets have been approved.

They will be built to a higher standard than the originals, some of which have been serving tourists since the early 1900s, with electricity, water supply and drainage installed.

It remains to be decided whether they will be sold on the open market, held and leased, or a combination of the two.