A WEST Somerset councillor at the centre of several planning decisions where councils on which he sat granted approvals for him and his partner is asking to be allowed to permanently keep holiday let caravans on land at the couple’s Blue Anchor home.

Cllr Marcus Kravis was given temporary permission in June, 2022, by the then-Somerset West and Taunton Council (SWT), of which he was a member, for the static caravans sited in the car park of the Anchors Drop home he shares with partner Cara Strom.

Permission was given for up to five years, after which the caravans had to be removed and the land restored to its previous condition.

The time limit was imposed because of the rate at which the sea was eroding cliffs below the couple’s property.

But, SWT later spent £3.8 million on a coastal defence scheme to protect the former public house and the nearby B3191 road.

Now, with the planning permission due to expire next year, Cllr Kravis is asking Somerset Council, on which both he and his partner now sit, to make the planning permission permanent.

His planning agent, Adam Elston, of Architectural Studio South West Ltd, said since the coastal defence work was complete, the temporary condition was no longer applicable.

Mr Elston said: “We are therefore proposing that this condition is removed so that the static caravans can be retained.”

He said Cllr Kravis had met other conditions attached to the planning permission for soft landscaping and to install a log pile for reptiles and an ‘invertebrates hotel’, as well as parking and a turning point, and drainage and surface water.

Cllr Kravis made media headlines in 2023 for starting legal action against SWT for refusing him permission to fit solar panels on the caravans, with amended proposals later approved by the new unitary council.