UK Local Council Fights to Halt 'Ghost Fleet'
by Michael McCarthy, NZ Hearld
8 October 2003 – The "ghost fleet" of decommissioned and toxic US Navy ships heading for Britain to be scrapped sailed into a legal minefield on Tuesday night when the council at Hartlepool, the ships' destination, said that the company intending to dismantle them did not have planning permission.
After the failure of an 11th hour court case brought by environmentalists to keep them all in dock in Virginia, the first two vessels in the flotilla of 13 chemical-contaminated ships left the US on Monday night bound for Teeside.
The ageing auxiliary oil tankers Canisteo and the Caloosahatchee have already begun their three-week Atlantic crossing, being towed by a large ocean-going tug.
Two more of the obsolete ships are free to leave at any time, while another nine are being held in port while a court battle between the US Maritime Administration and American environmental groups goes on in Washington.
But yesterday Hartlepool Council put a considerable obstacle in path of all of them by declaring that the company intending to receive them, Able UK, did not have planning permission for the dry dock in which it is intending to take them to pieces.
The company countered that its legal preparations were in completely in order, and made no move to have the ships sent back to a US port. The situation last night was somewhat confused.
Hartlepool Council said in a statement: "Having thoroughly examined the scope and validity of previous planning permissions granted for Able UK's Graythorp site, we have notified Able UK that in our view there is no valid planning permission to allow for the construction of the proposed dam and the reinstatement of the dock gates, to provide a dry dock.
"We have therefore advised Able UK that it would need to submit to the Council a formal planning application for the proposed dam and the reinstatement of the dock gates....we have advised Able UK's solicitors that if Able UK requires dry dock facilities in order to carry out its proposed ships' decommissioning, then the required planning permissions are not in place."
However Mr Peter Stephenson, Managing Director of Able UK, said last night: "As we have made it very clear publicly on a number of occasions, we are confident that all the necessary planning approvals are in place."
Green campaigners claim that the ships, between 40 and 50-years-old and contaminated with chemicals including PCBs, asbestos and heavy diesel could break-up during the journey, causing an environmental catastrophe.
The contract is worth $44 million (£16 million) to the company and will create about 200 jobs.
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