Press Releases - ABLE

COMPANY WELCOMES NEWS ON VESSELS’ ARRIVAL
15 /11/03

Able UK has today (November 15th) welcomed confirmation from the Government that the second pair of American vessels, currently in transit, will continue their journey to the company’s facility at Hartlepool.

Able Managing Director Peter Stephenson described today’s announcement from the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs as ‘commonsense’ and said the company remained confident that, once the current legal issues were resolved, the vessels would be recycled at the TERRC (Teesside Environmental Reclamation and Recycling Centre) facility.

He also welcomed a clear statement from the United States Maritime Administration (MARAD) that it remained ‘firmly committed to the Able UK contract’

Today’s announcement mean that the vessels, the general auxiliary ‘Compass Island’ and submarine repair tender ‘Canopus’, will be arriving at Graythorp later this month to join the ‘Caloosahatchee’ and ‘Canisteo’ which this week completed their journey across the Atlantic and are now moored at the Able facility.

Said Mr Stephenson “Obviously we are pleased that the announcement from DEFRA, supported by MARAD, offers a commonsense way of ensuring that the vessels can be received at the TERRC and safely stored until current issues are resolved.

“We have demonstrated with the safe arrival of the vessels early this week that we are fully equipped to ensure that they and the other two ships currently in transit can be kept moored in a safe condition and we will, of course, observe the requirements of Mr Justice Maurice Kay that only work to keep them in a safe condition should be undertaken until the outcome of a court hearing scheduled for the week beginning December 8th.

“Today’s statement from DEFRA refers to the need to identify ‘environmentally suitable and legally acceptable methods’ for the disposal of the vessels and we are very confident that we can demonstrate that our facility meets those requirements.

“It is clear that, now people have had the opportunity to see for themselves that the vessels are not the horrific ‘toxic ships’ which Friends of the Earth and others have claimed, there is a growing groundswell of both support for our contract and an understanding of the benefits that it will bring for Hartlepool and the area—and anger at the way in which many people feel they have been deceived and misled.

“I certainly hope that we are now moving towards a situation where discussions and decisions on these vessels—and indeed the wider question of the recycling of redundant shipping—can be conducted on the basis of facts rather than fiction.”

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