Why is HMS Invincible being dismantled outside the UK?

Here at C&D we are passionate about demolition and dismantling and equally passionate about UK skills in those fields. So I am annoyed and amazed that the UK Government has allowed HMS Invincible to be sold for scrap and then dismantled in Aliaga in Turkey.

I realise that tenders are driven by price, but surely the government should have ensured that the ship stayed in the UK. We have purpose built ship recycling facilities at Hartlepool, Tyneside, Belfast, Merseyside and in Scotland, and any of these could have done the job keeping employment in the UK.

From the photograph on the BBC website it looks like work is done in a different way to here in the UK as the ship is floating whilst being dismantled, rather than being in a dry dock, so I have my concerns as to how they control spillage of hydrocarbons into the sea.

I am now calling on the government to act to ensure that all future UK navy ships are dismantled in the UK, with skilled UK workers rather than being allowed to cross the oceans to be broken up on a foreign land. Remember that these ships served to defend our country in times of conflict and we should never forget that, or just allow them to be demolished away from the UK.