By NEIL SEARS Published: 23:09 BST, 5 October 2025 | Updated: 00:34 BST, 6 October 2025
Spending the afternoon in a wood-fired sauna on the beach at Britain's most exclusive seaside spot sounds idyllic.But its construction has left volleyball players literally spluttering with frustration.On the Sandbanks peninsula in Poole, Dorset, where mansions can be worth more than £10 million, paying customers can warm up in the Saltwater Sauna.But members of the Sandbanks Volleyball Club, who play just a few yards away, are less than impressed.Players complain the woodburner heating the sauna cabin gives off smoky fumes and have reported coughs, tight chests and even struggling for breath.Club members are calling on the local council to get the sauna moved or order it to run on electricity, the same as another the sauna company has won planning permission ten miles away at Southbourne Beach.Sandbanks Volleyball Club second team captain Mark Fry, 59, said: 'It's absolutely awful, like sitting next to someone smoking. It really gets to your chest and makes you cough, and I like to look after my health.'I'm a non-smoker and it really affects me. It's like somebody having a barbecue next to you. Players complain the woodburner heating the sauna cabin gives off smoky fumes and have reported coughs, tight chests and even struggling for breath'If the wind is blowing the other way it's fine, but I think probably eight times out of ten you can smell it. There's been times I have gone off the court because of it.'He added: 'I complained to the council but never got a response, and when I chased it up they said the guy dealing with it had left. We talked about moving the courts, but we can't really go any further as we are right at the end of the promenade.'Volleyball player Julie Chadbourne, 62, said: 'I go to the beach in the evening to breathe fresh air and play outdoors instead of indoor volleyball.'When you are gasping for air on the court, it does smell and means I can't breathe properly.'They have elongated the chimney but it doesn't matter when the wind is blowing. I have gone home rather than carrying on playing.'It comes the week after a study, presented at the European Respiratory Society Congress in Amsterdam, found wood-burning stoves can damage the lungs in a similar fashion to smoking.Chairman of Volleyball Dorset Geoff Allen said: 'The sauna in itself is a good facility, the problem is the fuel they use which causes fumes to come across onto the courts.'In the summer, we have probably over 100 people play there each week and it isn't pleasant.' Sandbanks Volleyball Club second team captain Mark Fry, 59, (pictured: right) said: 'It's absolutely awful, like sitting next to someone smokingA spokesman for Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council said it had no record of any complaints since objections raised through the planning process, adding that the sauna is subject to a condition that the wood burned is only to be that approved by the Woodsure Certification Scheme.A spokesman for The Saltwater Sauna said: 'We've welcomed over 180,000 customers at Sandbanks in just two years, many of them local.'While many volleyball players have told us they experience no issues and are regular sauna users themselves, we made a small adjustment to our flues as a gesture of goodwill.'Our saunas already meet strict planning conditions.'
