‘Oversight’ on day one leaves landowners outraged
Emergency plans need to be changed to make sure landowners are included, or at least informed about operations occurring on their land according to The National Trust, who say they were not informed about The Napoli response plans on their beach at Branscombe in January.
Project manager for The National Trust, Adrian Woodhall said: “We own from the cliffs up to the high water mark so we own quite a large proportion of that beach and it was a case [on January 20th] that we literally had to introduce ourselves to people in day-glow jackets on the beach and say “We’re The National Trust and we own this land.”
Secretary of State’s representative for Maritime Salvage and Intervention, Robin Middleton oversaw all operations relating to the Napoli in those first few hours. In response to The National Trust’s criticism said: “There might have been an oversight there; perhaps at that early stage the contractor was under the impression that the beach belonged to the local authority. We’ve had beaches in the past where we’ve found out suddenly that the beach actually belongs to the military and that sort of thing.”
According to Mr Woodall, The National Trust is putting together comprehensive guidelines about who owns which areas of coastline on a local level. They also plan to request that the national contingency plan is drawn up again, this time to ensure that landowners are kept informed in such circumstances.
Mr Woodall said: “That’s not just us but could be local authority landowners or private landowners – we’ve all got some responsibility and we will probably know more about that site than people who drive police cars, fire engines and ambulances.”
However, Mr Middleton, argues that this is already the case, he said: “Technically it is the landowner’s responsibility to clean it up, and to mount clean-up operations on somebody’s property without telling them really isn’t on… but that’s something that’s certainly provided for in The National Contingency Plan – the landowner certainly would be involved.”
That, at least is one point both The National Trust and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency agree on, Mr Woodhall said: “If you’re a landowner and you’re looking after an ancient monument or a site of special scientific interest or a special area of conservation, you want to be responsible to keep that site in good condition so you are involved whether you like it or not, and if somebody dumps 70 containers on your beach you;ve got to try and have that situation managed so the conservation interest or archaeological interest in the area isn’t trashed in the environmental clean up.”
Conceding that an error, or at least a miscommunication is responsible for The National Trust’s feelings on their initial involvement, or lack thereof in the response to The Napoli, Mr Middleton feels it should be addressed in the ‘wash-up’ when the incident is over; he said: “I’d suggest that the action point on that would be to make sure it’s flagged up that in at any event where there’s likely to be an impact on that shoreline, the National Trust are informed.”