BEACH hut owners and chalet tenants are today calling for money raised from the rents they pay at Felixstowe to be ploughed back into resort facilities.

Suffolk Coastal says the rent is used to protect council services – such as street cleaning, free public toilets and rubbish collection.

Hut owner Barbara Grace, part of the team aiming to set up a new owners’ association, said: “If the average rent is say £500, then the council is raking in £500,000 a year from the huts alone.

“That money should be spent on Felixstowe seafront, resort activities or improvements, not being used in Leiston or Saxmundham to pay for street cleaning.

“If hut owners paid £10 a year to join an association, we could raise £10,000 a year to jointly fund improvements we might like to the hut sites if the council would also contribute by giving back some of our rent towards projects.”

Ms Grace said she had researched beach huts rents at sites run by other coastal authorities and discovered that at some resorts council tax payers were charged half-price – to avoid people unfairly paying twice for services to which they contributed – while people from outside the area paid the full rent.

Council leader Ray Herring said: “If they do get the people together, a beach hut owners’ association would be very useful and I think it is a very positive position.”