New holiday let approved at seaside pub

Plans to turn part of a seaside pub into holiday accommodation have been unanimously approved by councillors.

Owners of the Anchor's Drop, formerly the Blue Anchor, near Minehead applied to turn the site's existing owners' accommodation into a six-bedroom holiday let.

The new let will include four bathrooms, a lounge, kitchen and a dining room.

New defences against coastal erosion have been put in place in the area over recent years.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), the site is run by Cara Strom, a refugee housing officer at Somerset Council, and partner Marcus Kravis, the division member for Dunster and surrounding areas.

Under the council’s constitution, it is standard procedure for all applications put forward by a serving councillors or any of their relatives to be considered by the committee in public for the sake of transparency.

Mr Kravis told the committee  – which met to discuss the plans in Taunton on 19 March – the recently-completed coastal defence scheme in Blue Anchor had helped to secure the future of the business.

He said: “I would now argue that this is the most stable bit of coastal land in west Somerset, as it won’t be affected by sea levels rises.

“Ms Strom should be commended for having dealt honourably with the situation she has had to content with at the Blue Anchor Hotel for the last 21 years or so.”

Anchor’s Drop, the neighbouring properties and the B3191 have been threatened by coastal erosion in recent years, resulting in a £3.5m coastal defence scheme being put in place in the late-autumn.

Thousands of tonnes of rock armour, sourced from the Glensanda quarry in Scotland, have been put at the base of the existing cliffs to protect the properties above.

A similar scheme to protect Minehead seafront from damage, using granite from the same quarry, was completed by the Environment Agency shortly before Christmas.

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