Ghost Ships
Ghost ship saga still haunts town after three-year battle
When the Caloosa-hatchee trundled into Able's Seaton Carew Graythorp yard on a damp, grey morning in November 2003, no one could have imagined the extraordinary twists and turns that were still to come in the ghost ship saga.
The ship, previously part of the US Navy Sixth Fleet, would eventually be joined by the Canisteo, a veteran of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Vietnam War, and two more vessels as part of an £11m contract with the US Maritime Administration.
Already subject to an international spat between Britain and the US over the rights and wrongs of their arrival, what would follow would be almost another three years of wrangling over their fate.
This has included two High Court cases, constant claim and counter-claim between environmentalists and Able and a drawn-out planning process - in which the company believed it had been granted permission for the work to be carried out only to discover further information was required by authorities.
Today, the fate of the four ships moored at Graythorp remains uncertain, as does the fate of the nine ships that make up the remainder of the contract, which have stayed in the US.
Equally, Able's grand plans for a world-class recycling facility at Graythorp, which could eventually scrap scores of decommissioned ships from all over the world, remain in the balance.
Having seemingly jumped over every hurdle placed in front of it - including getting permission from the Environment Agency - Able had finally seen a series of planning applications for Graythorp reach the planning committee stage at Hartlepool Borough Council.
Three planning applications, as well as a hazardous substances application, would form the final piece of a complicated jigsaw clearing Able to begin the work on recycling ships it so desperately wanted to carry out, creating up to 200 jobs in the process.
Councillors, having been presented with a 177-page report from officers, were recommended to approve the plans and many thought yesterday's meeting would provide an end to the saga.
But as befits a story with so many twists and turns, there was a final sting in the tail, with councillors rejecting the advice of officers and overwhelmingly voting against the proposals.
Able chairman and managing director Peter Stephenson has said the firm will appeal and confidently predicts the project will be back on track within a year.
What will happen next remains anyone's guess.
The case for
PAM Jose is chairman of the Environmental Industries Federation (EIF), a trade association which represents environmental businesses in the North-East of England.
She said Able was one of only a few companies worldwide with the facilities to safely scrap obsolete ships.
Ms Jose said: "The market for ship scrapping globally is huge, but there are very few facilities that can handle this kind of work.
"Large governments are desperate for these facilities to be online so they can be sure that the ships that they are finished with are going to be dismantled in a safe way.
"In the North-East, we have a tradition of ship building - an industry sadly in decline - but a lot of those skills can be used to safely dismantle structures like ships.
"The Able contract was, and is, a great chance for the North-East to be recognised as a vibrant part of this rapidly-growing industry.
"As I understand it, 700 jobs could be created in total, including construction jobs.
"With the Able facility fully developed and operational, as well as the current contract, the British Navy had several ships in dock waiting to be recycled. Able had also won a contract to partially dismantle a North Sea oil rig. You would have long-term job prospects as a result over the next ten years.
"On top of that, people involved in the supply chains, such as local haulage, scrap metal companies and engineering firms would benefit.
"Ship scrapping, when it is done properly, is a very professional and well-regulated industry and has some cutting-edge technology.
"Unfortunately, people just have the image of these ships as something that are old and dirty and detrimental to the environment.
"If they are disposed of properly, that is far from the case, and they need to read all the facts before making a judgement.
"It is very disappointing that Able's planning applications have been turned down and comes as a total surprise and we will be wanting to understand the reasons behind this."
The case against
NEIL Marley, of West View, Hartlepool, lives only a few miles from Able UK's Graythorp shipyard.
His son, Ben, was one of three local residents who took legal action against the Environment Agency and Hartlepool Borough Council in the High Court in a bid to halt Able's plans.
Speaking after hearing the news yesterday, Mr Marley said: "I am shocked and overjoyed at the councillors' decision, as I thought it was a foregone conclusion the planning applications would be granted.
"This is a very good day for democracy.
"The main objection I and others had was the fact that American ships were going to be scrapped here.
"We are quite right to say we should not send our ships to India and other Third World countries and we should deal with our own rubbish - so why should somebody else's rubbish be brought over here?"
Mr Marley also had concerns over the ability of the shipyard to handle the scrapping of the vessels in an environmentally safe way -and felt that the town should be looking forward instead of back at an older industry.
He said: "I did not have a lot of faith that, when it came to undertaking the process of scrapping ships in a required manner, they could do it in a way to protect the environment and people.
"Consultation was an issue - the ships were suddenly here and that was the first thing we had heard of it.
"Maybe we do need a British yard to carry out work scrapping our own ships, but I am just not sure Able is the right firm to do it.
"They claimed this work would create jobs, but there would only be a minimal number of new jobs, and it would be low-quality work anyway.
"Hartlepool is meant to be going through a renaissance and attracting tourist money and we were looking at the dirtiest end of heavy industry coming back.
"It is going back to the past and we don't want to do that."
8:41am Friday 13th October 2006
Print 
Email this
What are these links for?
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
More on Digg
More on del.icio.us
More on Furl
More on reddit
More on NowPublic/
More on Yahoo!
