FOUR ships at the centre of a legal row will remain at a dockyard throughout the winter while a bid for new licences is made to allow dismantling work to be carried out.

Environmental campaigners fear it could take up to ten months for Able UK to win the necessary permission to scrap the former US navy ships at its yard on the outskirts of Hartlepool -and there is no guarantee of victory.

Managing director Peter Stephenson had hoped work would start shortly after Christmas. However, he revealed how two legal challenges have delayed his plans and cost hundreds of thousands of pounds, as well as two potential contracts.

Mr Stephenson was confident the dismantling and scrapping, which will provide 200 jobs, could start as early as the spring should there be no further hitches.

But environmental campaign group Friends of the Earth (FoE) said the four ships should be sent back to the US at that time, providing an independent examination shows they are seaworthy.

FoE's campaigns director, Mike Childs, said: "They could be in a position, by the end of April, where they have the things in place, assuming everything is plain sailing.

"April is towards the end of spring, by which time the boats should be able to go back because the weather conditions will be okay and because the seas will be less rough.

"It could be, by the time Able has all the permissions legally, the ships should be well on the way back to the States.

"But if planning permission becomes an issue and there is a need for a public inquiry, it could drag on until next autumn."

The first round of the legal battle was staged on Monday when a judge ruled a modification to Able UK's waste management licence, granted by the Environment Agency, was "fatally flawed" and suggested he will quash it today.

The company applied to the agency for a new licence yesterday. A decision is not expected for several weeks.

Depending on the outcome of a second High Court hearing next week involving three residents and Hartlepool Borough Council, Able might also have to apply for renewed planning permission.

The first four ships from the Ghost Fleet are moored at Able's yard at Graythorp, and are surrounded by an oil boom.

The other nine, which were destined for Teesside as part of the £11m contract with the US Government, are prohibited from leaving the James River in Virginia until next spring.

Mr Stephenson has told of his frustration at the delays and revealed how Able has had to employ three barristers, two QCs and five solicitors to fight the challenge from FoE and other opponents of the deal.

He said: "It is quite frightening that this contract has been affected so badly by bureaucracy, but we are still very confident that eventually we will get the job done.

"We have got some of the best legal advice in the country, and it is forecast to cost £300,000 by the time it is finished.

"That is all money that could have been put into this facility, and it is a total farce that the authorities in this country have allowed it to happen.

"We have already had two potential clients that now look as though they will look elsewhere, and I blame it on this fiasco."

* www.ghostships.co.uk