Town turns its back on America's toxic ships

Mooning protest planned as opposition grows to role as 'George Bush's toilet'

John Vidal
Tuesday October 14, 2003
The Guardian

When in a few weeks' time the first two of a small fleet of rusting, polluted former US Navy hulks end their 4,000-mile voyage across the Atlantic and are towed up the Tees to be scrapped in Hartlepool, they will be greeted on the riverbank by the bare cheeks of Neil Marley and the newly-formed "Hartlepool volunteer defence force".
Mr Marley and others are preparing to bare their backsides to the ships in protest at what they say has been the obscene bending over of the authorities to accommodate American toxic waste. Central and local government, as well as a plethora of national pollution and environment advisers, have all helped the passage of the toxic ships to Hartlepool, they say. Their complaint is that no one has asked the townspeople or listened to their concerns.

Yesterday the EU environment commissioner, Margot Wallstrom, added her voice to the chorus of criticism, saying that it made "no sense" to tow the ships across the Atlantic and proposing that Europe send technical experts to the US to help shipyards there break them up.

"I will write to the US government, and raise the matter with [British] environment secretary Margaret Beckett today," she said. "We are looking at the legal aspects. I think it doesn't make sense at all. They should be kept in the US.

"There is too much of an environmental risk. I will write to the US government and bring the subject up with Margaret Beckett."

Last week, a poll in Hartlepool's local newspaper reflected rising anger on Teesside about the plans of local company Able UK to import the 13 ships, most of which are almost 50 years old and are contaminated with more than 1,000 tonnes of asbestos, toxic chemicals and oil. Only 64 out of more than 700 people who phoned the Hartlepool Mail said that they wanted them to come, despite the promise of hundreds of jobs in a region which desperately needs work.

"We've got better things to do than break up shitty ships," said Mike Turner, a Labour councillor in Seaton ward. "We'll be looked on as George Bush's toilet. The people of Hartlepool have said loud and clear they don't want them."

Mr Marley said: "This is the indigenous peoples of Teesside uprising. Everyone's saying we've had enough rubbish. This is supposed to be a post-industrial economy. People are acutely aware of the past and don't want to go back to it."

Stuart Drummond, the town mayor who was elected after standing as football club mascot H'Angus the Monkey, says he was not surprised by the 91%-against straw poll. "Everyone who I've spoken to feels the same: why can't America look after itself? We [the council] feel very frustrated and uncomfortable, because we can't do anything about it.

"We're trying to promote Hartlepool as a tourist place, but this makes it seem hypocritical. Tens of millions have been spent improving the town. We're trying to attract high quality jobs." Only last week, proposals were submitted for a large development of the town's marina.

Hartlepool has been transformed since the 1980s, when unemployment and the legacy of heavy industry made it seem as redundant as the American ships now crossing the Atlantic. There are still sink estates, but the town centre is attractive and popular.

"Twenty years ago, Hartlepool was a grimy, down-at-heel town. People had no confidence in it. All that has changed. People are proud of their town now," says Trevor Peel, chairman of the town's Liberal Democrat group.

The mayor is backed by people from all political parties and income groups. "People are asking, why Hartlepool?" said Steve Allison, an independent councillor in Seaton ward, the closest to the waste tip where the asbestos and pollution will be buried.

"It's gradually dawning on people that all the asbestos will be dumped on them. They worry about the long-term safety risks and how much they will put there."

This is not a middle-class protest, says Margaret Sneddon, a community volunteer. "My ward, Dyke House, is one of the worst in Britain. It's got a terrible record of drugs and anti-social behaviour. People there don't want the ships either. They are telling me, 'OK, they'll perhaps give us jobs, but how many people will it kill?' The stigma for the town will last for years and years."

Geoff Lilley, a former parks officer and bus driver, says that it is unjust that Hartlepool should take the waste. "We've had more than our share of pollution. Why not ram the boats up a beach in the south of England? If they went to Southend there would be a revolution," he says. "We're not saying that heavy industry is not welcome here but we deserve better than this."

Peter Stephenson, the managing director of Able UK, who lives out of the town, is unrepentant and doesn't think Hartlepool has changed. He blames Friends of the Earth for whipping up the press. And he says that the yard to which he wants to bring the ships had the backing of everyone only a few years ago when it was due to take the controversial Brent Spar oil platform.

"The poll makes no difference at all," he says. "It was done without people having the facts. I can't understand this furore. We comply with everything that the International Maritime Organisation says we should.

"Yes, I was surprised by the reaction, but the press has been very misleading. When you compare our 13 ships to those that regularly use the Tees, ours have just 0.11% of their oil. We've done a full risk environmental survey."

He complains that he has not been given a chance to make a presentation to the people of Hartlepool, and promises 200 skilled jobs.

"We have already lined people up. The contract could be the trigger to refurbish the dock and lead to major construction orders."

Peter Mandelson, MP for Hartlepool, together with many businessmen in the town, has lined up behind Mr Stephenson. Even the most vociferous opponents of the ships' arrival accept that there is a group of people who just don't care. "What's wrong with them?," says Jill, a student at the train station. "They're coming anyway."

Her friend Julia supports her: "Let them come. We've always handled shit."

"It's muck or jobs," says another.

Across the Tees, the communities around the giant chemical works at Grangetown live in some of the worst environmental conditions in Britain, with up to 70% on benefit, cancer the highest cause of death and respiratory diseases rife.

"The pride of the Tees lies in the fact that we built bridges and boats and now it's come to scrapping other people's crap," says Carol Zagrovich, a community worker with Impact, a social network set up by Friends of the Earth based on a sink estate.

"Most people here couldn't give a toss whether boats full of the worst pollution come," she says. "They have been brainwashed into thinking that because they live in poverty they should be grateful for anything".

Her colleague, Gillian, an education officer, agrees. "People have lived in these terrible conditions for so long that they have stopped caring. The difference [between here and Hartlepool] is that this is a culture of no hope."


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