A LANDMARK court battle that will decide the fate of nine rusting US navy ships marked for disposal in the North-East has been delayed yet again.

The ships have been unable to leave the James River, in Virginia, for the Able UK yard on Teesside pending the legal fight.

Officials at Able UK are confident they will be given permission for the ships to make the crossing.

If they get approval, the company hopes that its facilities in Hartlepool will attract other lucrative contracts from the US govern- ment.

More than 100 unwanted naval vessels are moored in the James River, where they are known as ghost ships.

A US judge was due to hear evidence over the vessels after they were blocked from sailing to the Hartlepool shipyard following legal challenges from environmental protestors.

But the hearing, on Friday, October 1, has been put back a further two weeks on the orders of a Washington district court, having previously been postponed from August.

Officials said the delay was caused by schedule conflicts at the court.

The new delay will further frustrate officials at Able, which has suffered a series of setbacks after it won an £11m contract to scrap 13 ships belonging to the US Maritime Admistration.

Last night, the company said its timetable to begin work, possibly as early as January, to recycle the four ships in the fleet already moored in Hartlepool would not be delayed.

Able has previously stated that an environmental impact assessment and a planning application required by Hartlepool Borough Council before work could start would be submitted by the end of this month.

With less than a week to go, a company spokesman said: "That is still the latest position and we are hopeful it will remain so."

The company also requires a waste management licence from the Environment Agency, but cannot receive this until it gets approval from Hartlepool Borough Council.

Critics of the ghost ships deal said the vessels were laden with dangerous chemicals and waste materials and that they should be disposed of in the US.

Officials from Able said the ships were safe and that scrapping them in Hartlepool would create hundreds of jobs.

* www.ghostships.co.uk

Read more about the Ghost Ships campaign here.