Hotel teeters on cliff edge after landslide

The landlady of a hotel, which has been left teetering on the edge of a cliff following a landslip, says immediate action needs to be taken before it falls into the sea.

Cara Strom has been calling for the cliff to be shored up for more than a decade, but still nothing has been done. Now the Blue Anchor Hotel on the West Somerset Coast in Exmoor is edging ever closer to total destruction.

Cara said, "Last week there was a hairline crack and then the next day, it just opened up and has been opening up ever since. I mean we've had quite a big fall in 2011 and 2014 but nothing like this, this is a huge piece of land."

The Blue Anchor hotel has overlooked the Bristol channel for five centuries, but despite repeated warnings the cliffs have not been shored up.

West Somerset Council applied to the Environment Agency for money for a coastal protection scheme.

But that failed because the the council didn't have the money or technical expertise to come up with a design. The authority says it remains supportive of a scheme but can't progress unless it receives support from hoteliers and the community here.