Press Releases - ABLE

WITHDRAW ‘LAW BREAKING’ CLAIM, SAYS COMPANY
09/12/03

Friends of the Earth have today (December 9th) been challenged to withdraw comments from a senior spokesman following yesterday’s High Court hearing into the way the Environment Agency handled a modification to Able UK’s waste management licence.

Able UK's Managing Director Peter Stephenson said that claims made in a radio broadcast by Friends of the Earth’s Mike Childs were ‘a deliberate attempt to suggest that the court had found our company guilty of breaking the law and failing to follow proper practices.’

In the broadcast Mr Childs claimed that ‘the judge made it very clear that breaking environmental laws is not acceptable and that companies that either break environmental laws or don’t follow right practices would have to pay up in the end.’

Said Mr Stephenson “I suppose by now we should not be surprised by any claims put forward by Friends of the Earth, but this is a gross misrepresentation of what yesterday’s case was all about.

“Friends of the Earth did not seek judicial review against any action taken by our company, but against the manner in which the Environment Agency had handled the modification of our waste management licence in relation to the recycling of the redundant US vessels. It was the procedures of the agency which were under scrutiny by Mr Justice Sullivan and to use his decision as a means of smearing our company in such a quite blatant manner is absolutely disgraceful.

“Friends of the Earth always cry ‘foul’ whenever anybody states that their claims are misleading or exaggerated, but this is another case of misleading information by Friends of the Earth that cannot be defended.

“The clear implication in his remark, that the judge’s decision or comments suggested that our company was guilty of breaking the law or failing to follow proper practices, is indefensible—and Friends of the Earth should withdraw it immediately.”

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