A cash-strapped council has been urged to drop the asking price of its new beach huts as almost 75% remain unsold months after going on the market.

Canterbury City Council (CCC) has built 30 shacks on Herne Bay seafront and is selling them for £30,000 each in a bid to bolster its dwindling coffers.

It won planning permission for the project in 2021 and said it anticipated a “high level of demand” for the huts on the East Cliff promenade, with more than 1,000 people expressing an interest in owning one.

But with just eight sold since May, CCC has been accused of erecting them in an undesirable area of the town with few amenities and poor phone signal.

In stark contrast, 10 beach huts the authority built further along the coast in Western Esplanade in 2022 were snapped up within weeks.

Critics say the £1,045 annual ground rent fee demanded by CCC in East Cliff is also a turn-off, with owners to the west of the town, near Hampton, only paying £660.

Andrew Cook, a former councillor who was a member of the previous administration which approved the beach hut scheme, and the current chairman of the Herne Bay Beach Hut Owners Association, now says he is not surprised the huts have been slow to sell.

“The fact is that they are too expensive for the location, the ground rent is too high and there are no support facilities close by, like toilets or even running water,” he said.

“Ideally, they should really have been on the lower fringe of the Downs, where you wouldn’t have people walking immediately past their frontages, but a village green application for the area has scuppered that.

“The price of beach huts did inflate in the wake of the pandemic but has cooled back down now. For example, a good beach hut at the more desirable Hampton end is around £25,000.

“But the other issue is the ground rent. The Downs end is less popular but they want to charge £1,045, whereas ours at the other end pay £660.

“If the council really wants to get them sold, it needs to drop the price and rent and put in facilities like proper toilets and CCTV to offer better security, because they will be vulnerable to vandalism.”

In September 2021, CCC was given the green light to build 84 beach huts at East Cliff across three phases, plus the 10 at Western Esplanade.

The latter were built in early 2022 and sold quickly, while the first tranche of the East Cliff huts went on sale in May.

While said to offer “stunning, uninterrupted views across the bay”, many residents have been quick to blame the location for the lack of interest.

On a Herne Bay Facebook group, Lucy Howes wrote: “There is really poor phone signal and they’re too far out, so no amenities, and not close to a road either, so anything you want to put in there you have to walk down.”

Jack Keam believes that with the rising cost of living, few people have £30,000 to spend on a “wooden hut.”

“Too expensive, no electric or water. It is just a shed at the end of the day,” he said.

Another commenter, Jenny Wells, added: “They are the most stupidly located huts, expensive huts ever.”

While sales are slow, CCC says it has already broken even on the East Cliff project, with the 30 huts costing £222,667 to install.

The remaining 54 huts will be built in phases when the current ones are sold, it added.

Council spokesman Rob Davies says standpipes and showers to service the East Cliff site are also being installed, while arguing public toilets at the King’s Hall are within reasonable walking distance.

“The construction of beach huts is a commercial scheme for us over the longer term, designed in a way that means we deliver the huts in phases to meet demand rather than just building them at a cost to taxpayers,” he said.

"We are pleased with the progress made so far, having already broken even, and expect to sell more of the huts in the coming months and into next year.”

While CCC is being urged to reduce the asking price of the huts, others in the district are being sold privately for even more.

One in Spa Esplanade, to the Hampton end of Herne Bay, is on the market for £33,000, while another along the coast in Marine Parade, Tankerton, is up for £65,000.