High Court blocks 'ghost ships' work

[emad]

From BBC News:

The High Court has blocked any work being carried out on dismantling the so-called 'ghost ships' heading for Britain until crucial legal challenges have been heard. Four ships are on a 4,000 mile journey from the James River, Virginia, in the United States, and are due to dock for dismantling at Able UK's Hartlepool yard in mid-November.
Environmental campaigners Friends of the Earth asked the High Court in London to quash a modification to a waste management licence allowing the work to go ahead.

Three Hartlepool residents also applied to the court on Wednesday, for an immediate injunction to stop the ships arriving. Neil Gregan, Stephen Hall, and Ben Marley, who all live near the Able UK site where the ships are due to be dismantled, say they could pose environmental risks to ecologically-important sites nearby. The fleet of 13 ships is contaminated with chemicals including asbestos and heavy diesel.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/tees/3243805.stm

Bottom line on this heated debate: if USA environmentalists have succeeded in dumping this toxic task on the Brits, that says a lot about US Navy policy. If they can't/won't do their own dirty work, why should the UK? Or is this part of the republican value system of 'dumping on our allies' - I mean sharing bold coalition initiatives in the defense field....