A DISUSED ship repair yard could be reopened by the end of next month, it was announced yesterday.

The former Cammell Laird yard at South Bank, near Middlesbrough, used to employ more than 100 people.

But it has not been operating since April last year after the firm went into receivership.

An engineering report on the site is due next week and it is expected to give the go-ahead for work to begin.

Later this month it will be a year since ship repair and conversion company A&P bought the Teesside operation.

It also bought Cammell Laird's other facilities at Birkenhead, Merseyside, and Hebburn, Tyneside, as well as the assets of the South Bank yard and an option on its lease.

Yesterday, David Skentelbery, A&P managing director for ship care and projects, said the report had to be conducted for health and safety reasons because the site had been empty for more than a year.

He said: "I am expecting it to land on my desk early next week and if it gives the all-clear, we should be able to open by the end of next month. I am not anticipating any problems."

He said he also hoped to be talking about signing the lease with Tees and Hartlepool Port Authority, which owns the land, very soon.

Lawyers had already been working on the lease in an effort to save time, he said.

David Turk, former general manager of the yard, is helping the company determine the state of the facilities and equipment at the site on a part-time basis.

The company said about 20 jobs will be provided initially and A&P has said it will use the yard as a base for "floating repairs".

Teesside has a history of shipbuilding and repair and, at one point, there were three shipyards in Stockton.

But orders slumped in the late 1970s and the last ship was launched from Smith's Dock in 1986.

* The workforce at McNulty Offshore, on Tyneside, is set to be doubled thanks to a new contract.

McNulty has won a contract with oil company BP to build part of its Claire oil platform, just days after new management took it over.

The order is expected to provide work until the end of next year.

Parts for the North Sea platform will be made at McNulty's South Shields yard.

They will then be moved across the river to rival Amec which will add them to the Claire structure that it has won a contract to build.