The clock is ticking on long-running plans by Able UK to scrap rusting ships in the North-East, as Stuart Arnold reports.

ANYONE following the long-running saga could be forgiven for asking whether it will ever end.

The original application to convert Able's Teesside Environmental Reclamation and Recycling Centre (TERRC) to scrap ships - which itself was more than a year in the making - was submitted to Hartlepool Borough Council on January 17, last year.

However, it has been subject to revisions and several requests for more information after objections from the likes of the Environment Agency and English Nature.

A council spokesman said: "We are currently assessing all the responses received and any issues that might arise from them.

"However, no date for a planning committee meeting in which the application will be heard has been set."

Able UK unveiled an £11m deal with the US Maritime Administration (Marad) to scrap 13 so-called "ghost ships" from its National Defence Reserve fleet in July 2003.

Four ships forming part of the contract were towed to the UK in October, with Able believing everything was in place to carry out the work.

However, a High Court judge would later rule that existing planning permission was legally flawed, leading it to be withdrawn.

In turn, a modified waste management licence issued by the Environment Agency to allow disposal of the fleet then also had to be withdrawn.

Mike Childs, of Friends of the Earth, said: "I really do not think Able will ever get the permissions they need."

Able would appear to be strongly placed to secure ship scrapping work at its Hartlepool base.

Only this week, a BBC investigation revealed that a derelict UK war vessel, the Sir Geraint, was sold abroad by the Ministry of Defence and ended up being dangerously dismantled on a beach in Pakistan.

The MoD subsequently admitted that it was tightening its policies and hoped to work with other Government departments to develop a UK ship recycling strategy.

But Marad has been steadily disposing of its remaining obsolete ships on a "worst condition first" basis by handing disposal contracts to US firms.

Meanwhile, the Swan Hunter shipyard now looks set to muscle in on the international ship scrapping market with its own plans.