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Pictured: Electric beach barbecues at Branksome Chine beach near Bournemouth in Dorset.

A council that spent over £106,000 on installing communal barbecues on a seafront promenade had to close them due to overheating.

The electric cooking stations were opened to great fanfare by officials in Bournemouth, Dorset, last year.

But they were slammed as an 'absolute farce' after the local council closed them weeks later over cleanliness issues.

Now they have closed them again at the height of the tourist season because their heat 'posed a risk to the public'.