SAND is piling up around beach huts in Thorpe Bay after being washed down the shore from Jubilee Beach.

Cafe owners on Eastern Esplanade have been saying the beach by their businesses is eroding at an alarming rate.

But it has not gone far. The sand around some huts in Thorpe Bay has risen by about 4ft, after breakwaters in the beach were either removed or covered by sand.

One hut owner claims the sand is so deep he has lost four steps down to the beach after the council pumped sand on to the new beach.

Alan Davison, retired, of Lower Lambricks, Rayleigh, said: "The breakwaters used to slow down the process of the sand being washed from west to east and they would stop the sand every 200 yards or so.

"It would build up on the pier side of each breakwater slowing down the natural process.

"I have had that beach hut for nearly 20 years and the sand has never been as high before.

Ian Robinson, membership secretary of the Southend Beach Hut Owners' Association, said it was important to remember the beach at Southend is man-made and was only built when the town became a fashionable resort.

He said: "There was, and always has been, a natural phenomenon where there is a moving of sand from west to east and that is governed by the tide.

"The council used to put sand at Westcliff and Chalkwell and the action of the tide would spread it down to the east.

"What has happened is the exceptionally high tide has pushed it away a lot quicker."

Mr Robinson said the council did a "good job" when it reinforced the sea defences by putting more sand on the beach, but it needs to be replenished quicker from where it has moved and removed from where it has built up due to the high tides.

The council has said the sand would be replenished and repositioned ten years after the sea defences operation in 2002.

Roy Hunt, Southend Council's Engineering Consultant, says: "We appreciate the problem but it is a natural one.

"Once the funds become available we can look into recycling the sand to areas where it has been depleted by natural processes."