An inquiry will be held into the grounding of a stricken container ship off a World Heritage Coast.
The damaged container vessel Napoli was grounded over a week ago, a mile off Sidmouth, east Devon. Devon County Council said that if the Government did not hold an inquiry into the matter then they would carry one out.
The authority's revelation came today as 10 containers were lifted off the listing 62,000-tonne Napoli in three hours.
A Devon spokesman said there was "overwhelming support" among members of the authority's executive to hold a local inquiry if necessary.
Devon held their own inquiry into the effect on the Foot and Mouth crisis in the county a few years ago.
The decision to ground the Napoli was made amid fears she could go down following a Channel storm in which her 26 crew were rescued.
East Devon Tory district councillor Stuart Hughes lent his support for an inquiry. "There are a lot of searching questions which need to be answered," he said.
Among them were why the vessel was not taken into Falmouth or to France after being taken in tow around 50 miles from the Cornish coast. "We must make sure than an incident like this never happens again in Lyme Bay," he added.
The Napoli was being towed to Portland, Dorset, when the decision was made to ground her.
A giant floating crane has started to lift containers from the Napoli. The operation to remove more than 2,000 containers from the vessel could take months.
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