HUNDREDS of metres of West Somerset coastline will fall into the sea in the next 30 years unless urgent action is taken, county council experts warned this week.

Geological maps produced by the council have revealed just how much of the coast between Watchet and Blue Anchor could be lost if nothing is done. It is claimed that the road from Blue Anchor to the hamlet of Chapel Cleeve could also disappear under the waves by 2120.

In the hope of preventing such a disastrous outcome, up to £4 million will be spent on reinforcing the cliffs at Blue Anchor, with separate work being carried out at the Watchet end of the B3191 road up to 2025.

Experts claim that unless urgent reconstruction is carried out, erosion could claim a significant stretch of the B3191 by the 2080s, cutting off the beach from the nearby Beeches Holiday Park.

The existing sea defences at Blue Anchor are a mixture of angled concrete walls, constructed between the 1920s and 1980s.

Two large holes in part of the wall were discovered in early June, necessitating urgent repairs by the district council which were completed in July.

These repairs have cost around £385,000, with the council intending to claim the money back from the Environment Agency (EA), which provides funding for emergency repair work.

Chris Hall, Somerset West and Taunton Council’s assistant director for climate change and assets, said: “The importance of this wall cannot be overstated.

“Its loss would lead to a sudden failure of the cliff and advice from the EA is that the erosion will exceed the point that erosion over time would have created had the wall not been there - it would be sudden and more damaging.”

The county council announced in early September that up to £4m would be spent on repairing and reinforcing the cliffs to protect the Blue Anchor Hotel and the B3191 by 2022.

The scheme will be funded by the EA and the Department for Transport’s highway grants to the county council - but will be delivered through the district council under its coastal protection remit,Cllr Sarah Wakefield, portfolio holder for the environment, told a virtual scrutiny committee.

Full report in tomorrow’s Free Press