MINISTERS are facing calls to act with "urgency" to remove up to eight oil tankers from the Westcountry coastline or risk an "ecological catastrophe".

Several ships carrying crude oil have been anchored in Lyme Bay, off the historic Jurassic coastline, since the autumn.

It has been claimed the ship's owners are waiting for the price of oil to rise before continuing on their journey.

The Government insists it is powerless to move the vessels on, despite them being so close to a Unesco world heritage site.

But senior Conservative MP Oliver Letwin warned "one of the most beautiful places in the world" is being put needlessly at risk by ministerial inaction.

He added: "It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever for the UK to have a huge array of environmental and ecological legislation and yet be unable to stop large objects containing large amounts of highly toxic material parking in an area where, in bad weather conditions, for instance, there might be a catastrophe. We hope that will not happen – the ecological significance would be colossal."

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He claimed the "average punter" would expect the Government to have "some method for ensuring that the biggest ecological risks were minimised in the most important sites".

Mr Letwin, the Tory policy chief and West Dorset MP, condemned the lack of a "sense of urgency".

"The time to take action is now, before anything happens, and I do not see any reason to delay," he told a Commons debate.

In 2007, MSC Napoli ran aground off the same stretch of coastline in poor weather.

"If a tanker was involved, the disaster would be on a different scale from those that we have so far witnessed," Mr Letwin added.

Conservationists have repeatedly raised concerns about the oil tankers moored off the World Heritage coast. Dorset Wildlife Trust has said the situation is "an accident waiting to happen".

Eight tankers were in the Bay yesterday, registered in the Bahamas, Panama, Italy, the Philippines, Japan, Marshall Isles, Greece and Hong Kong. A general cargo vessel from Russian was also sheltering along with a tug from St Vincent.

Liberal Democrat MP Annette Brooke (Mid-Dorset and North Poole) insisted there "obviously has to be a better solution" and demanded ministers use "common sense and negotiations" to reduce the level of risk.

Junior transport minister Paul Clark said the Government would "seriously take on board" the concerns, but it was "an accepted fact" that ships take shelter in Lyme Bay.

"Subject to good seamanship and provided that ships keep clear of obstructions, wrecks, cables, pipelines and, of course, each other, there are no statutory restrictions on anchoring, nor are there any statutory restrictions on the number of ships that can be in an area at any one time."

But if the weather of the condition of the ships gave "cause for concern" the Maritime and Coastguard Agency could step in as part of an ongoing "monitoring process".