THE Environment Agency, Government and local MP Ian Liddell-Grainger should be forced to take action to save the Blue Anchor Hotel and the nearby B3191 from falling into the sea, district councillors said this week.

The task of protecting the fast-eroding coastline beneath the hotel was simply too big for the council to tackle alone - and they called on "higher authorities" to face up to their responsibilities.

The comments came at Wednesday's full council meeting when members formally agreed to pull out of a £600,000 scheme to shore up coastal defences in Blue Anchor.

"This scheme is far to be big for this council and I have never understood why the Government and our MP haven't done more to get involved," Conservative member Cllr Dave Westcott said.

"When it came to the Levels, the Government put in all the resources.

"I know this is only one hotel but there are other implications such as the road as well.

"It must go to a higher authority to deal with. If it doesn't, we will have major problems with the road.

"We need to make the MP do something about it."

Earlier this month, Mr Liddell-Grainger accused the council of "shirking" its responsibility to protect coastal communities by threatening to pull out of the Blue Anchor scheme.

But the council's legal advisors said the authority had no responsibility to protect the hotel, and Cllr Doug Ross laid the blame firmly at the door of the Environment Agency.

"Back in 2007 we were trying to get the Environment Agency to act," he said.

"We put in a bid to the Environment Agency and that failed.

"Let's remember where the responsibility clearly lies. It falls to the Environment Agency, the ball is in their court."

The district council had been working in partnership with the owners of the Blue Anchor Hotel and Somerset County Council to draw up a plan to protect the cliffs.

Some £200,000 had been pledged by the partners towards the cost of extending the sea wall, providing rock armour to break up the power of the waves and to pin certain sections of the cliff to improve stability.

The bulk of the funding would have come from the Environment Agency - providing the council made a successful bid for the cash and covered the additional cost of any overspends and subsequent problems with the scheme.

But Cllr Anthony Trollope-Bellew, the council's lead member for environment, said impossibly tight deadlines were the real culprits behind the collapse of the project.

He said that in September the Environment Agency had advised the council to make a bid before January 1, with work having to be underway on site by April 1.

"We could cope with that," Cllr Trollope-Bellew said. "But then we were told we had to go through a European procurement process and that would take three months.

"That was just possible, but then we were told we had to have an extra 28 days of consultation.

"We found ourselves in a position of having to do four months' work in three months and that was not possible."

Cllr Trollope-Bellew refuted any suggestion the council had dragged its feet on the scheme and said the authority had already spent £11,500 since September on the project.

A further £40,000 would have had to be spent on a design for the scheme before a bid could be made and that money could not be reclaimed if the bid was unsuccessful.

"But that is minor compared to the fact we would have to underwrite the project," Cllr Trollope-Bellew said.

"We could have the best design in the world but until work starts we won't know what work needs to be done and whatever it is, we would have to fund it and that could be any amount.

"In between, there could be further storm damage and that would increase the cost of the project and we would have to underwrite that.

"If the project ultimately failed, this council would also be liable for any damage to the cliffs without any funding help from anyone else.

"The costs we could incur are unknown but they could be very very expensive and I recommend work ceases on this project."

Chris Hall, the council's assistant director for operational delivery, said there could still be light at the end of the tunnel for a cliff defence scheme, even if the council pulled out of the bid.

"If this project ceases it doesn't mean it's the end," he said.

"There is work we can pass to another body and I do think there are other bodies out there that are better placed to deliver this."

Council leader Cllr Tim Taylor said it was imperative something was done to protect the cliffs at Blue Anchor: "We need to get this sorted out in the long-term.

"The coastline has been eroding quite rapidly there for 100s of years.

"It is going to cost an awful lot of money to protect that coastline between Blue Anchor and Watchet and we are going to have to make representations to a higher authority if there is any hope of resolving this."

Stogursey member Cllr Chris Morgan added: "We are the poorest council in the country and we get one of the biggest problems.

"One big storm and it's going to go - what price the road?

"What is the problem our Government and our Government representative have in understanding that we haven't got any money and we can't do anything about it other than get kicked by everybody else?" Cllr Morgan said.

Councillors agreed not to proceed any further with the bidding process due to the financial risks and impossibly tight deadlines imposed by the Environment Agency.