By Becky HallewellSANDCASTLES, ice cream and candyfloss are not the only attractions adding to the seafront fun at one East Anglian resort.Beach hut owner and mother of 10, Maddie Fuller has caused quite a stir in Walton on the Naze, reviving saucy seaside scenes and postcard cartoon characters on huts along the front.

By Becky Hallewell

SANDCASTLES, ice cream and candyfloss are not the only attractions adding to the seafront fun at one East Anglian resort.

Beach hut owner and mother of 10, Maddie Fuller has caused quite a stir in Walton on the Naze, reviving saucy seaside scenes and postcard cartoon characters on huts along the front.

Mrs Fuller has painted more than a dozen beach huts with the traditional seaside images, prompting much laughter among visitors to the resort.

“They are all postcards I've painted. I've done comic whales, beach balls, ice creams with wafers, Captain Pugwash, seals and dolphins,” she said.

“I've also done a comic character of myself on the front of my beach hut with my big belly out and what I call my 'passion killers' showing.”

But the saucy images did not tickle everyone's funny bones and police were called in to investigate following complaints one design was “pornographic”, prompting Mrs Fuller, 53, to slightly change the picture.

“The policemen were laughing. They thought it was quite funny and just typical seaside humour,” she said.

Christine Turner, a Frinton and Walton town and Tendring district councillor, had originally received the complaints about one of the pictures that featured an image of a man and woman taken from a traditional seaside postcard.

She was pleased to learn the rest of the image had now been added, putting the scene into context.

“Before it was changed, the picture could have been taken the wrong way. As it now represents a postcard that we sell all over town, well, we can't object to that,” she said.

But there is a serious side to Mrs Fuller's efforts as the pictures have also served as an outlet for hut owners' frustration at having to dismantle their seafront wooden homes.

The owners of 92 beach huts next to Walton Pier have been told to remove their huts by the end of October by Cinque Ports Leisure Company, which owns the land where they are located.

The company told the beach hut owners they were acting on a safety report, which said work needed to be carried out to repair land slippage.

But the owners disagreed with the report and organised a petition, which has more than 2,300 signatures.

Mrs Fuller said the beach hut owners had not been given any land to temporarily relocate their huts or a guarantee they would be able to return.