More than 85 beach hut owners packed into a Southend Council meeting demanding to know why the cost of their leases is to go up by as much as 76 per cent.

They expressed their anger at the massive hike which officers claim brings Southend in line with the fees charged by other east coast resorts, to members of the leisure committee.

Owners of huts in Shoebury will now be charged £125 compared to £71.03, and people with Thorpe Bay huts are faced with bills of £153, compared with the previous £87.43.

Both new charges are exclusive of rates and come as the tenants' six-year leases expire at the end of December 1998.

They are also required to pay £45 for the council to deal with the paperwork involved in renewing the leases.

An amendment put forward by Councillor Howard Briggs (Con Belfairs) at the council's leisure committee last night that the leases should rise 30 per cent was defeated by one vote. He asked for the matter to be referred to full council which meets on April 29.

He said: "We are talking about ripping off the few for the benefit of the many. These people are politically insignificant."

Councillor Roger Weaver (Con Eastwood) said: "By cutting the increase to 30 per cent we are talking about the loss of £18,000 to the council in a budget of £250m. It is not worth the hostility."

Leisure bosses claim tenants have been let off lightly for the past few years.

Council officer Andy Shepherd said: "The current rents represent a historic assessment which has merely been increased in line with inflation therefore making the current rents fall below market rental levels.

"In effect, beach hut tenants have benefited from such historically low rental assessments for some years and therefore in order to bring rental levels to current market levels a large scale increase is now necessary."

However, one beach hut owner, Eric McMahon, told This Is Essex: "There are many people who have paid the £45 but are not happy about the rise. We were told the £45 must be paid within eight weeks otherwise we will lose our leases. That's blackmail."

Another owner Tessa Dunn said: "We sent cheques in because we do not want to lose the hut."

Owners were also angry that the extra money will mean no extra or improved services.

Joan Shaw, of Woodgrange Close, Thorpe Bay, said: "We do not have any amenities, no water, toilets or gas. Beach huts in other towns have these and pay less."

The council owns the leasehold of 491 huts along the foreshore.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.