Court bid to stop toxic ships docking

Environmental activists are going to the High Court today in an attempt to stop the first in a fleet of rusting warships arriving in Britain.

The US Navy has granted a licence to a British company to break up 13 derelict vessels - all of which are contaminated. The first two are en-route despite there being no place for them to dock.

Friends of the Earth is trying to quash the licence. Environmental groups, government agencies and the local council are all agreed that the 50-year-old ships cannot be dismantled on Teesside.

The Environment Agency says it will not oppose the court action. The stage is set for confrontation between Britain and the US and a possible environmental disaster - with the ships stranded off our coast in worsening weather.

The vessels Caloosahatchee and Canisteo are expected early next week. Two more vessels are several days into their journey from Virginia. The nearer they get to Britain the more difficult it will be to return them in the face of adverse currents and winter gales. A complex legal battle is set to rage but leaving the ships adrift over winter is not an option.

Each ship should come with paperwork but according to the Environment Department this is inadequate and there can be no question of them docking.

Crucially, the dry dock where the vessels could have been broken up with a lesser risk of pollution is incomplete and the local Hartlepool council says it has no planning permission.

Mayor Stuart Drummond, said: "The US is big enough to deal with environmental problems of this kind by themselves. We don't want to be used as a dumping ground for their toxic rubbish."

The ships contain oil and asbestos and are covered with flaking lead paint. Their wiring is coated in carcinogenic Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs). The company breaking up the ships, Able UK, has a good environmental record but accepted the contract before its dry dock was completed.