Council questions Lyme Bay refuge status

Last refuge: containers salvaged from the MSC Napoli await processing as the debate over co-ordinating such incidents continues. Stuart MacKenzie Thursday 3 May 2007

LYME Bay’s designation as a refuge for ships in distress will be questioned when Devon County Council holds a public inquiry into the MSC Napoliaccident, writes Janet Porter.

Local councillors and residents were unaware Lyme Bay, located along the World Heritage coast, was one of the UK’s two ports of refuge until the containership was deliberately beached there last January after it broke down in French waters.

The British and French authorities made a joint decision to tow the abandoned ship to the UK where the relatively sandy Devon and Dorset shores were more suitable to ground the vessel than the rocky northern French coast.

The first idea was to take the ship into the small Dorset port of Portland, but as MSC Napoli’s condition worsened, salvage tugs instead headed for Lyme Bay. That is where the ship now rests, close to the Devon village of Branscombe and just a few hundred metres from the famous Jurassic coast.

Neither Devon County Council nor East Devon District Council were consulted about that decision, but neither are they questioning it given the gravity of the situation on the night of the emergency. “It was the right thing to do,” leader of Devon County Council Brian Greenslade told Lloyd’s List.

Others caught up in the crisis agree. Robin Middleton, the UK’s Secretary of State Representative responsible for handling maritime incidents, “made the right decision”, said councillor Margaret Rogers, who is a resident of Branscombe.

Nevertheless, local officials believe the casualty raises a number of issues that need to be addressed.

With the government apparently deciding against a national public inquiry, Devon will conduct its own review of the night of January 20 when MSC Napoli was beached near Branscombe, plus issues that have emerged from that, such as local preparedness, policing, and inter-agency co-ordination.

In a roundtable discussion with Lloyd’s List attended by representatives from Devon County Council, East Devon District Council and Devon and Cornwall Police, interpretation of the law was a recurring theme.

While the Maritime and Coastguard Agency is adamant there was never any doubt cargo found on the shore remained the property of the original owner, the police said it needed legal advice about the laws of salvage.

“That took time to resolve,” said Inspector Nevin Hunter of Devon and Cornwall Police’s Contingency Planning Unit.

With the police refusing to close off the beach, Branscombe found itself besieged by people from across the country who were branded by most as looters who even broke into sealed containers to remove their contents.

But what also emerged from the MSC Napoli accident was that emergency planning has focused on the risk of oil leaks, rather than container spills.

“We realised our contingency plans are based on oil, not inert pollution,” said Rachel Waldock of Natural England, which has been working closely with the salvage team since the start of the incident.

Devon officials are of the same opinion and recognise that there is much to be learned from the MSC Napoli affair.

If oil had come ashore, there would have been a well-rehearsed action plan with lines of responsibility between agencies in charge of sea and land operations clearly defined.

In this case, with the MCA in charge of the rescue operation and present on the beach, and with the police unsure of its powers in this specific case, there was a vacuum for a couple of days.

“We were waiting to be led,” said Mr Greenslade.

Devon’s public inquiry will not be able to produce any legally binding recommendations, but the council plans to send the results to London, Brussels and other maritime authorities.