From Mike Bomford, Exeter 382173, March 05, 2008

A Devon County Council-led local public inquiry into the beaching of the MCS Napoli off the East Devon coast in January 2007 has officially begun.

The Council is encouraging local authorities, Government departments and agencies, businesses and landowners, communities, their elected representatives, environmental and conservation bodies, the general public and any interested party to contribute their views throughout the Spring.

Specially designed webpages are now live on Devon County Council's website www.devon.gov.uk for people to contribute their comments to the inquiry. The pages include background to the incident, details about the inquiry, and a response form.

Inquiry response packs are also available from libraries, local government offices, schools, town and parish councils, and local County Councillors. People can also request response packs from the Council's Inquiry coordinating office on 01392 380101.

And the Council's Community Roadshow vehicle, which attends local events across Devon, will be visiting Branscombe, Beer, Seaton and Sidmouth in coming weeks to provide a further opportunity for people to submit contributions. Dates and locations for these visits are to be confirmed.

The purpose of the inquiry is to learn lessons to inform local and national contingency plans to minimise the potential for an incident similar to the MSC Napoli reoccurring, and for authorities to be better prepared to minimise any impact of future incidents.

The evidence gathering is the first stage of the inquiry. All the evidence will be catalogued and prepared pending appointment of an independent Chairman and Committee of Inquiry later in the year, who may also invite witnesses to recount or expand upon their written submissions at subsequent hearings in public.

Findings of the Committee will be made public and shared locally and nationally with Ministers.

Invited representatives from a range of local authorities, organisations, and businesses, showed their support and attended the launch ceremony in Branscombe yesterday.

Councillor Brian Greenslade, the Leader of Devon County Council said:

"The purpose of this inquiry is to learn any lessons that better prepare contingency plans in future. To do that we would like to hear the views from people in the local communities affected, and from the range of businesses and organisations who have had an involvement with the incident.

"We've made contributing to the inquiry as easy as possible, in different formats to encourage as many people as we can to take part."

For more information about the local inquiry, contact the Inquiry Coordinating Office on 01392 380101.

NOTE TO NEWS EDITORS

Councillor Brian Greenslade can be contacted on 01271 372065