Perhaps a way to configure it to work in that environment may be: Bug email gets sent to the dev it determines responsible, and if they 'sit on it' it gets sent

Perhaps a way to configure it to work in that environment may be: Bug email gets sent to the dev it determines responsible, and if they 'sit on it' it gets sent to the whole team. With an appropriate sit-on-the-email period of a couple of hours, or a day. If it was really critical the dev in question could easily escalate it anyway in that kind of environment. This should give you the contextual advantage first, and then collaborative advantage very soon after.