Press Releases - ABLE

ABLE SPELLS OUT CONTRACTS—AND COSTS—AT STAKE

12th Oct 07

The Chairman of Able UK has today revealed that multi-million pound contracts for the construction of massive concrete sections for the new Tyne Tunnel and for building two of the biggest oil drilling rigs in the world will be lost unless Hartlepool Council gives the go-ahead for plans to develop the company’s Seaton Port yard at Graythorp by the end of the month.

Peter Stephenson said he believed it was vital that the public in Hartlepool and the rest of the region ‘were made fully aware that the responsibility for losing many millions of pounds of investment and hundreds of jobs will rest with the Council and its Members who have twice ignored the advice of their professional officers.’

He also revealed that the company would be ‘vigorously’ pursuing costs from the Council not only for the unnecessary public inquiry but also for the losses flowing from the Council’s failure to decide the new applications.

Members of the Council’s Planning Committee refused the company’s first applications on October 12th last year. On June 18th this year, they announced they would not be defending that decision at appeal. Mr Stephenson said “we helpfully made a new application to give the Council the chance to avoid the Inquiry and save everyone considerable costs. They avoided making a decision last week forcing us to proceed.

“Time after time the so-called ‘environmentalists’ try to claim that all we want to do at our TERRC (Teesside Environmental Reclamation and Recycling Centre) facility is scrap ships and dump huge amounts of waste into the Seaton Meadows disposal site. I want to make it crystal clear—THAT IS NOT TRUE.

“We have some key contracts available, including the manufacture of four 10,000 tonnes concrete sections for the new Tyne Tunnel and the construction of two large oil rig drilling platforms which will provide work for circa 1,500 people in the Hartlepool and Tees Valley area.

“The delays over the past four years have already inflicted a massive cost, and lost significant opportunities for the entire local economy. It would be a tragedy if yet further significant damage was caused because of the smears and distortion perpetrated by a tiny minority —and the failure of councillors to fulfil their duty to act in the interests of the overwhelming majority of local people and the town as a whole.

“We are now locked in a totally unnecessary inquiry where the Council on one hand have said they have no objections and, on the other, are refusing to take the decision that would have removed the need for it. This irresponsible behaviour has cost both sides a huge amount of time and money. Of course, we shall be claiming whatever reimbursement is open to us”.

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