Beach hut trouble brewing in Brighton

Brighton and Hove City Council says that councillors have agreen plans to modernise beach hut licences and introduce a transfer fee to be charged when beach huts are sold which will help to support the council’s seafront services. They say the plans will also see beach hut licences updated and streamlined.

They add that the proposals follow a consultation with beach hut owners. However, those same owners from the Hove Beach Hut Association claim that the transfer fee increase is unfair and the whole plan is being imposed on them rather than agreed with them.

The new licence will be introduced on 1 April next year. There are 459 beach huts on Hove seafront, all privately owned by Brighton & Hove residents. According to the council these currently sell for around £30,000 - the new transfer fee will see owners paying the council either 10% of the sale price or 4 times the licence fee, whichever is greater. The new transfer fee, along with the annual £503.60 licence fee, will go towards maintaining the seafront services.

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David Cameron is back from his shepherd's hut...

 

 

As David Cameron makes his way back into political life having written his memoirs in a shepherd's hut bought specifically in 2017 for that reason, shepherds' hut specialists Plankbridge have posted the above picture on X/Twitter, with co-owner Richard Lee commenting: "Well I didn’t think that I would need to dust this one off again."

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Malvern Garden Buildings offer a premium collection of garden buildings, displayed at 11 UK showsites.

 

Emily Cockayne: shedworker

This is a guest post by Dr Emily Cockayne, Associate Professor in Early Modern History 
at the University of East Anglia and author of several books, most recently Penning Poison (2023) which is reviewed by me in the latest issue of the Idler magazine.

I had a writing shed built in the Autumn of 2009, costing a few thousand pounds [pictured above]. A sedum roof helps keep the interior sufficiently insulated to need only an oil-filled radiator on low. Three books have been written in the shed so far – it was financed using part of the advance for my second book, 'Cheek by Jowl', a history of neighbours. This felt appropriate as I had a different perspective on my own neighbours from my shed chair. 

Next, I wrote 'Rummage' in the shed, a history of recycling written on a recycled desk. Living in a terraced house, and then having two small children, writing at the bottom of the garden seemed to be an obvious solution to escape from the bustle of family life and establish efficient work habits. In the last 14 years, I have found the shed to be a place of contemplation and also of refuge.  

It was great to have the shed to work in over lockdown, when I led seminars from it remotely, recorded lectures in it, and also finished my fourth book, 'Penning Poison', a history of anonymous letters, as well as updating my first book, 'Hubbub', for a second edition. Whilst my colleagues were interrupted by postal workers and the sounds of ice-cream vans, I could carry on in the relative peace at the end of the garden. An anonymous letter had circulated our street back in 2015, and I suspect the writer lives in a house immediately behind my shed – something I kept in mind when writing 'Penning Poison'.

I often share the space with one or both of my cats, and there is usually a big stripy spider busily making a web in a corner. Recently, I moved my sewing machine into the shed, and now also use it as a space for embroidering and patchwork-making, as well as marking student essays and writing my next book.

Friday Finery: garden office video tour

To see you through to the weekend, here's a rather nice little video from Garden Affairs of their horizontally ribbed Larchwood Linea model, 3.5m x 2.5m. 

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Booths Ex-Rental garden studio for sale

Booths Garden Studios has a rare ex rental 12' x 8' QCB office model available for £10,495 (a saving of just over  you £4,900 compared to a new studio). If you're looking to become a shedworker, this is worth looking into as they don't come along very often so do get in touch with them.

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 studios to fit any size garden. Top quality contemporary or traditional

 buildings.

Bryn Tirion: 1841-style shedworking?

An interesting opportunity this for anybody looking for a Grade II listed garden office project. Pictured above is Bryn Tirion in Harlech, Wales, on the market with Tom Parry estate agents for auction at a starting bid price of £30,000. It dates back to 1841 and has great views over Cardigan Bay, Harlech Castle and the Snowdonia Mountain Range.

As the pictures above indicate, it needs a bit of work and hasn't been inhabited for half a century (there are not services currently connected either) but as the agents say: "Bryn Tirion is a quaint, compact gem and a wonderful opportunity to be creative from a blank-canvas. Perhaps you are looking for the most unusual little workplace?"

The whole thing measures 4.62m (l) x 3.30m (w) x 5.23m (h) and features a stone floor, two windows, and a door. It's been most recently used as storage/workshop.

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Wednesday posts are sponsored by Booths Garden Studios, the UK's No.1 supplier of zero maintenance and portable garden studios

Police shed: Introducing PC Pod

Sussex Police’s latest initiative to tackle crime and disorder in Crawley is the shedworkingesque PC Pod. The innovative structure, which is comparable in size to a garden shed (pictured above, and with Inspector for Neighbourhood Policing in Crawley, Steve Turner), is powered by solar energy and made using 1,312 recycled plastic bottles. It will be used by police officers and staff, as well as partners including Crawley Borough Council.

The pod measures 254cm in length, 250cm in height and 185cm in width. Its panels are bonded for rigidity, impact resistance and water tightness, offering maximum durability and requiring no further maintenance, for example no further painting. 

Working together, their aim is to increase engagement and community reassurance, and provide a safe space for people to talk about any concerns they may have.

The hub has been funded by Operation Safety, the force’s response to knife crime and serious violence, and will be regularly used by Op Safety officers, too. It will support the ongoing work and operation activity of the team.

Detective Chief Inspector Simon Yates, the force lead for knife crime and serious violence, said: “The safety of our community is a priority for us, and this new hub provides a highly visible presence in the busy town centre to deter criminal activity and engage with members of the public."

The temporary installation follows the success of the ‘beach hut’ in Brighton in 2019 and the launch of an identical pod in Eastbourne in August. It will be manned by PCSOs, and officers from the local Neighbourhood Policing Team and Response Team as often as possible, particularly on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings.

Chief Inspector Ben Starns, District Commander for Crawley and Mid Sussex, said: “It is important to reiterate that the engagement hub is not replacing police stations; it is in addition to, and an enhancement of, our opportunities to engage with our community."

The engagement hub will remain on Crawley High Street for six months, when it will be removed for further evaluation into its effectiveness.

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Malvern Garden Buildings offer a premium collection of garden buildings, displayed at 11 UK showsites.