English municipal authorities Thursday rejected requests from a British firm to dismantle several rusting US Navy "ghost ships" that reportedly contained toxic materials. Hartlepool Borough Council in northeast England rejected applications from Able UK to allow it to break up the controversial US Naval Reserve vessels at its Hartlepool yard, including three of them already in British waters.
"We are not going to become the toxic waste dumping ground of Britain," Councillor Edna Wright said after a four-hour debate in which the council rejected the main planning applications by a majority verdict.
When the plans to dismantle the ships were unveiled in 2003, protesters warned they would be an environmental disaster, claiming they contained toxic materials and dangerous substances.
Able UK won a multi-million-pound contract to dismantle the rusting, redundant vessels and three of the ships were towed across to the Hartlepool area three years ago but work could not start until planning permission was granted.
Three planning applications and a hazardous substances consent application were presented to the council's planning committee at a meeting at the town's Civic Centre on Thursday.
The planning permission covered a range of proposals to extend the use of Able UK's Graythorp site, on the outskirts of the town.
They included extending the use of the site for construction, repair, refurbishment and decommisioning of ships of all types, the manufacture of wind turbines, the construction of quays, a cofferdam, new dock gates, the installation of a railway track, construction and operation of metal recycling facilities and the creation of industrial and warehouse buildings.
Source: Agence France-Presse
