WITH just four days to go before the second pair of Ghost Ships arrive in the North-East for a temporary stay, the Government agency at the centre of the storm appears to have backed down.

When the Environment Agency (EA) realised the correct permissions were not in place for Able UK to dismantle the rusting hulks at Graythorp Dock chief executive Barbara Young insisted they must be sent back.

This has not happened and the Government has been forced to allow the Hartlepool firm to secure the four vessels from America in its specially-designed basin.

But yesterday a spokesman for the EA said its preferred option was the safe dismantling of the ship yet denied this was a U-turn. She said: "We would like to see them sent back but they are here and we have also said we would like to see them properly dismantled in a regulated way.

"We said at the start of the issue that the best way to deal with them was at a proper facility with the right permissions in place.

"Sending them back is something we have also said. It will always be an option and if it is the only legal way of proceeding then we will support it.

"But we also support the recycling and reuse of the material if it is done in an environmentally sound way."

The controversy over whether Able UK have the necessary permissions is the subject of a High Court battle next month.

Meanwhile Hartlepool Council's planning committee is being asked to decide whether new documents from Able UK convince it to agree planning permission for a dry dock is in place.

The company claims it will not get a fair hearing because the councillors voted unanimously to ask for the ships to be sent back to the James River in Virginia.

An Able UK spokesman said: "This has been reflected in many of the comments made by senior figures within the Council which have been far from objective or impartial and have, in our view, seriously compromised their position."

Hartlepool Council strongly refuted that was the case and said all planning application were based on their merits as well as stringent planning law.

Friends of the Earth, who brought the action against the EA, maintain the ships must be returned to the US as soon as it is safe to do so, as their presence in UK waters breaches international law.