BRITAIN: A controversial plan to scrap four polluted US navy ships in Britain is in tatters after two government agencies said the scheme no longer had approval, and one urged them to turn back.
The ships are on their way across the Atlantic and are expected to arrive on Friday.
Britain's Environment Agency repeated yesterday that the Hartlepool site in north-east England where the ships would be broken and recycled no longer had "proper planning permission".
It said a demolition company, Able UK, had two options: to turn the ships back and apply for another waste-management licence, which could take months to approve, or find another site for the demolition, either in the UK or another country.
Asked if the ships should turn back, an Environment Agency spokeswoman replied: "That would be our preferred option."
On Monday the Environment Minister, Mr Elliott Morley, backed the agency's decision in the House of Commons.
Able UK said the first two ageing hulks, the Conisteo and the Caloosahatichie, both dating from the second World War, were due in British waters on Friday and at the scrapyard on Teesside the following week. Another two are due a week after that.
The decrepit vessels are polluted with thousands of tonnes of asbestos, toxic polychlorinated biphenyls and quantities of heavy fuel oil.
The planned disposal of the ships in Britain has caused uproar on both sides of the Atlantic, with US and UK environmental groups challenging the scheme in respective courts.
British politicians have also entered the fracas, calling for the ships to be repatriated and the waste to be disposed of in the United States.
UK government agencies did not know what would happen to the ships when they arrived. The Environment Agency said the ships could enter UK waters but could not continue to the demolition site, throwing the scheme into further confusion.
The large, unstable vessels need to transit the English Channel, one of the busiest stretches of water in the world, to reach their destination.
Friends of the Earth blamed the British government on Tuesday for the chaos. "The government hasn't taken a joined-up approach on this. It should order them back immediately," a spokeswoman said.
The rusting ships have been languishing at their anchorage points on the James River in Virginia for years as authorities argued over how best to dispose of them.
The former US president, Mr Bill Clinton, outlawed the sale of obsolete vessels for scrap overseas in an attempt to shield workers in developing nations who work in dangerous conditions.
But the Bush administration sought and won an Environment Protection Agency waiver against the moratorium, allowing the ships to be exported abroad for breaking.