PIL launch High Court challenge to stop toxic French ship being brought to the UK

Public Interest Lawyers (PIL), on behalf of its client Jean Kennedy of the Friends of Hartlepool group, has launched a legal challenge against the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to prevent a toxic French aircraft carrier from being imported into the United Kingdom to be dismantled.

The Clemenceau - which is contaminated with an estimated 760 tonnes of asbestos and 330 tonnes of Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs - see below) is one of the largest and the most infamous toxic ships in Europe and has long been the source of embarrassment for the French government. In 2005 – 2006, France caused international outrage when it attempted to illegally export the toxic ship to be broken in India. After a widespread global campaign of opposition, the French were forced to abandon their transfrontier waste-dumping plans and tow the ship back to the port of Brest in France where it has been located ever since.

In June 2008 the HSE granted Able UK (a toxic ship-breaking company based in Hartlepool) an exemption under the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006 to allow them to import the toxic ship into the United Kingdom. Able UK – who were prosecuted by the Environment Agency in 2007 for unlawfully dumping asbestos in the Hartlepool area and who were found to have imported toxic American warships into Hartlepool in 2003 without the required planning permission - have been joined by PIL as an Interested Party to the proceedings. Their contractual partner – the French Ministere de la Defense – have also been kept informed about the case.

Jean Kennedy, the Claimant who has brought this legal action, said today:

“The HSE have made a special exception to allow this toxic ghost ship and it’s deadly cargo into our local community. We feel that it is a deep injustice to force a small town - which has already disproportionately suffered the ill-effects of polluting industries and has one of the highest cancer rates in the UK – to accept France’s toxic waste”.

Phil Shiner, founder of PIL and UK Solicitor of the Year, said today:

“This legal challenge raises significant public-interest environmental issues and is a case where the HSE have clearly failed to follow their own policy on granting exemptions to Health and Safety legislation. When (as in this case) the facilities exist within France to dispose of the toxic waste aboard the Clemenceau, the HSE has a duty to consider these alternatives before allowing the ship and it’s carcinogenic cargo to be imported and disposed of in communities across North-East England.”

Iris Ryder, of Friends of Hartlepool, said today:

“Today’s legal challenge is the beginning of a new stage in the fight by Hartlepool residents to prevent our community from becoming the international toxic waste dumping ground of choice of both governments and polluting industries. The Clemenceau was considered too toxic to be broken and dumped in India and Turkey and was even refused permission to be towed through the Suez Canal on it’s voyage of shame back to France. Toxic waste should be disposed of close to where it is produced, not transported around the world to be buried in our community”.

Able UK have stated that they expect the ship to arrive from France later this summer. PIL have therefore requested that the Court consider this case as a matter of urgency and an expedited hearing is expected to take place at the Royal Courts of Justice in the week commencing 22 September 2008.


For further information about the case please contact:

Gavin Sullivan, Public Interest Lawyers: 0121 515 5069; or
Jean Kennedy, Friends of Hartlepool: 01429 295 039

Public Interest Lawyers was established in 1999. Since its formation the practice has taken on some of the most significant public law cases of recent times. The practice focuses on the following domestic areas: Public, Human Rights, Environmental, Planning and Urban Regeneration Law. Internationally, we practise Public, Human Rights, Humanitarian and Environmental Law.

For more information about PIL go to: www.publicinterestlawyers.co.uk

PCBs - which are understood to be so toxic and long-lived that they are no longer manufactured and have long been subject to international agreements on their destruction – have been classified by the European Commission as “probable human carcinogens [which] produce a wide spectrum of adverse effects in animals, including reproductive toxicity, immunotoxicity and carcinogenicity… There is considerable public, scientific and regulatory concern over the negative effects on human health and on the environment of long-term exposure to even the smallest amounts of dioxins and PCBs” [CEC (2001) Community Strategy for dioxins, furans and polychlorinated biphenyls (COM(2001)593.Final].