Toxic ship break-up could be illegal
The "ghost ships" row turned to farce today after the Government admitted it could be illegal for the polluted vessels to be dismantled in Britain.
Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett was forced to look for a temporary winter home for the ex-US navy ships amid fears they could break up in heavy seas, spilling highly toxic chemicals.
In an embarrassing setback, Mrs Beckett issued a statement admitting it would not be lawful for the ships, which are currently in the mid-Atlantic, to be dismantled in Hartlepool, where they were due to arrive in 24 hours.
"The Government agrees that the law requires the ships to be returned to the United States," she said in the statement.
But at the same time, Mrs Beckett insisted it was too late for them to be turned around, leaving the prospect of the UK being responsible for keeping the vessels safe over the winter until new dismantling facilities can be built.
Opposition parties said the affair was looking increasingly like a major gaffe.
A licence to dismantle the ships was issued to Hartlepool firm Able UK by the Environment Agency - only for the same agency to declare weeks later that it would be illegal because the special facilities needed had not been built.
Baroness Byford, the Tory spokesman in the House of Lords, said: "It was not until campaign group Friends of the Earth raised this in the High Court that the action was changed and withdrawal became enforced.
This reflects very badly upon the Environment Agency."
Mrs Beckett is asking the US government to turn around two more toxic warships which have already set off but are a week behind the first pair.
On Wednesday, the High Court blocked any work on dismantling the ships until legal challenges are heard on December 8. The injunction was granted to environmental groups by Mr Justice Maurice Kay, sitting in London, who ruled that, if the ships came to port, no work should take place "except for measures to make and keep them safe".
Able UK will ask the High Court to declare that the Environment Agency was wrong to agree with Friends of the Earth that a modification to a waste management licence allowing the firm to dispose of the ships was "invalid".
The Environment Agency has told the company that there are now no permissions in force allowing the ships to enter a UK port.
