Laxey residents who are opposed to plans for the village’s beach huts have been told it is too late to stop commissioners leasing them.

At a meeting on Friday night, Garff Commissioners chairman Jamie Smith confirmed that the authority had signed the lease with The Shed about 10 to 14 days before.

The meeting was called after it was announced in March that The Shed, which is run by Bev and Richard Clegg, will be expanding into the beach huts. They are hoping to make the top floor of the two-storey building into a terraced area to provide more shelter for customers.

Other ideas they are considering include having a little Manx produce hut and keeping one of the changing rooms open for the public to use.

However, at the meeting on Friday, residents said they weren’t properly consulted on the plans and said they are ’part of the heritage of Laxey’. While others said there is a ’large number’ of people who would want to lease them as beach huts.

However, Mr Smith and commissioner Nigel Dobson outlined that while it would’ve cost over about £30,000 to repair the huts, by leasing them the commissioners are getting an income ’from day one’ and the huts get repaired without costing rate payers any money.

They also said that the changes should bring more footfall and business to Laxey.

Mr Smith confirmed the lease had been signed prior to the meeting and added: ’We’ve done everything we can to save the structure of that building.’

While the lease has been signed, the change of use for the huts look likely to require planning permission. When residents asked what happens if this isn’t granted, the commissioners said this was commercially confidential.