Press Releases - ABLE

COURT DECISION BOOST FOR ABLE PLANS

13th November 2008

Able UK says that today’s rejection of a legal challenge against the Health Safety Executive is a major step forward in clearing the way for the disposal of a former aircraft carrier at the Able Seaton Port facility.

The company says it anticipates that the vessel, formerly known as the Clemenceau—but now referred to as the Q790—will be arriving at its yard before the end of the year, providing another boost to the facility, where a number of other major projects are already well underway.

At a hearing in London, the Court of Appeal rejected an attempted Judicial Review against the Health and Safety Executive to annul its decision to grant an exemption certificate for the importation of asbestos-contaminated material on board the vessel.

Said Able UK Chairman and Chief Executive Peter Stephenson “Obviously we are delighted that the Court of Appeal judges recognised that the Health and Safety Executive had acted entirely properly in granting an exemption certificate for the vessel which will be the biggest ship recycling project so far handled by any European yard.

“Today’s verdict, and the process involved, with neither the HSE nor ourselves having to make submissions, again re-emphasises the fact that the lawyers, with many of them funded by the tax payer, have been the only people to have benefitted from the distortions and scaremongering of a tiny minority.

“We have always argued that the Able Seaton Port facility can become a world leader in undertaking marine recycling to the highest possible environmental standards and winning this contract has fully vindicated our vision for the yard and the benefits it will bring to the Hartlepool area, local businesses, the region and the UK economy as a whole.

“Of course, recycling is just one element of our plans for the facility. Since gaining planning approval a year ago we have been undertaking a major development programme to provide the world’s largest dry dock facility as well as over 300 metres of new deepwater quays. Our investment programme, of over £40million, will be substantially completed by mid-2009 and represents a major boost to the Teesside economy.”

Work currently under way at Able Seaton Port includes the decommissioning and recycling of topside structures from the North West Hutton oil platform and around 70 people are currently working on the remediation and recycling of vessels already berthed at the facility. This number is expected to peak at around 200 with the arrival of the Q790 and the completion of the dry dock.

In addition preparations are being made at Able Seaton Port for work on the Tees Alliance Group contract with SeaDragon Offshore for the construction of semi-submersible drilling platforms, providing a further 1,000 jobs.

<< back