Row erupts over BCP Council plan to sell beach huts to itself

A row has erupted over a council's plan to set up a commercial company so it can sell beach huts to itself as part of a scheme it hopes will raise £54m.

Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council revealed the strategy in its latest medium term financial plan.

Opponents of the idea said it was "shady", and claimed beach hut associations had not been consulted.

But the Conservative-led authority said "fundamentally very little will change" and it would save residents money.

The strategy will involve the authority launching a "special purpose vehicle" company, owned by the council, which would then buy the huts at market value using loans from third party lenders.

It underpins the council's budget for the next financial year, and the authority said it would allow the core rate of council tax to be frozen.

A council document outlining how this would work described it as a "bold, non-traditional approach to the financing of local government".

However, Councillor Lesley Dedman, representing Christchurch Independents, told a full council meeting: "I think our residents deserve better than a council whose budget is built on shifting sands - quite literally - and beach huts."

Liberal Democrat Mike Cox described the plan as an "immoral Gordon Gekko, reverse equity release scheme", while his party colleague Marion Le Poidevin compared it to a "cunning plan" devised by inept Blackadder character Baldrick.

Drew Mellor, leader of the council, said his opponents had failed to come up with an alternative for the funding, and that the scheme had been supported by accountancy firm KPMG.

Deputy leader Phil Broadhead told the BBC: "Fundamentally very little will change - at the moment the beach huts are owned by the council and they will continue to be owned by the council.

"All of the control will rest in the same way... what will change is we'll have a whole extra layer of investment to be able to improve the beach huts... but crucially not have to sell loads of our assets."

Follow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].