A prominent pub on the Somerset coast will soon get new holiday lets built next door after plans were approved by local councillors.

Anchor’s Drop (formerly known as The Blue Anchor) lies at the eastern end of the village of Blue Anchor, near Minehead, just off the crucial B3191 which until recently provided a direct link to Watchet.

The site is operated by Cara Strom, who also works for Somerset Council as a refugee housing officer – and whose partner is Marcus Kravis, the division member for Dunster and the surrounding villages (including Blue Anchor).

The couple applied to make a number of changes to the pub, converting the existing owners’ accommodation into a six-bedroom holiday let and turning the current garage and pub function round into a new owners’ base.

The council’s planning committee west (which handles major or significant applications in the former Somerset West and Taunton area) has now given the go-ahead for these proposals.

The new holiday accommodation at Anchor’s Drop will include four bathrooms, a lounge, kitchen and dining room, allowing for large numbers of people to stay on this part of the coast.

The new managers’ accommodation, by contrast, will have four bedrooms along with a kitchen and dining room.

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 Tuesday afternoon (March 19) – that 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.

“In fact, we now joke that the amount of rock armour which the council put in front of the old sea wall means that the front garden are now more likely to fall into the road.

“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.

The scheme entailed positioning thousands of tonnes of rock armour, sourced from the Glensanda quarry in Scotland, 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.

Mr Kravis has faced a number of battles to redevelop the hotel in recent times, with Somerset West and Taunton Council’s planning committee narrowly voting in May 2022 to grant retrospective permission for him to keep up to six static caravans on the site until mid-2027.

He subsequently lodged an appeal with the Planning Inspectorate after Somerset Council refused permission for new solar panels on site – though the council did ultimately u-turn and grant permission for the new array in August 2023.

The committee voted unanimously to approve these most recent plans after less than half an hour’s debate.