Ruling blow for Able UK
by Angus Hoy, Evening Gazette
17 December 2003 – Hartlepool Council today ruled Able UK's planning permission for a dry dock at its Teesside yard was not valid. The move is the latest setback for Able's plan to scrap a fleet of US ghost ships at its Graythorp site.
But Able managing director Peter Stephenson today underlined the company's "unswerving determination" to carry out the recycling contract.
The firm has been at loggerheads with the local authority over the validity of an old planning permission to create a dry dock since September.
It claimed that as the permission to build a rock-filled dam had not been activated since 1997, when the council and regeneration body the Teesside Development Corporation approved the idea, it had lapsed.
But in recent months Able has supplied the council with paperwork to back up its claim and it is believed that managing director Peter Stephenson has even given the council a statutory declaration on the legitimacy of the permission.
Councillors from the planning committee and the leadership of the council have also been given guided tours around both Able UK's yard and even some of the ghost ships.
Speaking after today's meeting of Hartlepool planning committee, Mr Stephenson said he was optimistic that they would be in a position to begin work next Spring on the four vessels currently moored at its facility.
"Obviously the recent developments have had an impact on our planned programme of work. In the light of all the circumstances I expect that we will be in a position to begin work in April on construction of the 'bund', which will enable us to provide the dry dock facilities for the recycling of the vessels," he said.
"Constructing the bund will take about three months and during that period, starting in May, we would expect to begin the remediation phase of the work- in other words removing waste materials from the vessels - before starting the recycling operation in July.
"I am disappointed that today Hartlepool Council has again failed to recognise the overwhelming evidence we have presented to demonstrate that the planning permission still stands.
"But that does not affect our unswerving determination to move ahead with a contract which provides the best possible environmentally-friendly means of recycling redundant marine structures, as well as kick-starting the availability of the dry dock, creating a significant number of valuable jobs for local people and additional work for existing business in the area."
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