Campaigners are celebrating after plans for a controversial waste incinerator in County Durham were thrown out earlier this week.
The news was greeted with joy by local activists, who have spent four years fighting the proposals for a renewable energy centre on land at Hownsgill Industrial Estate, near Delves Lane, in Consett. The plans were lodged by Project Genesis Ltd and rejected by Durham County Council, but an appeal from the developer resulted in a public inquiry last year.
Posters and leaflets by campaign group Say No To Consett Incinerator flooded the town, with houses, shops and businesses joining in the fight to keep the incinerator off part of the site occupied by the former Consett Steel Works, which closed in 1980 with the loss of more than 3,000 jobs.
Read more: 'Huge win' - Government rejects plans for controversial incinerator in Consett
Christine Thomas, of Say No To Consett Incinerator, said: "We posted leaflets through 30,000 doors, which resulted in 3,500 objections to the plan, which was phenomenal from a town with only 25,000 residents. Our Facebook page has 6,500 members and at the last protest on the site, 1000 people turned up. I think it's fair to say that feeling were running high.
"Consett spent many years as a grimy industrial town, and the last thing we anyone in the town wanted as for us to go back to those days. Our campaign was multi-generational, but the strongest voice was from older women who lived in the town when the steel works were open. They said they had experienced the pollution and grime and did not want to go back there.
"I would like to thank everyone involved in the campaign. It was a non-political campaign, with representatives from all parties- Labour, Conservative, Lib Dem and independent- and ex councillors sharing their expertise. This really was a team and community effort and it's now time for the next stage in the history of the town."
Consett county councillor Kathryn Rooney said the result was a real boost to the thousands of people in Consett who had worked tirelessly to fight the incinerator plans, and picked themselves back up to fight again Project Genesis Ltd announced they were appealing the original decision to block the development.
"It's not something I want on my doorstep, and clearly thousands of people agreed with me," said Kathryn. "We can finally look forward now without the shadow of this unwanted incinerator over us. Consett is a lovely place to live now, and this decision means it will stay that way."
Pensioners Barry and Jackie Tupper were two of the people who had bought houses on part of the old steel works site, attracted into the town as a clean place to retire. "We were horrified when we leaned of the plans," said 72-year-old Barry, a former health and safety manager at Nissan.
"There are a tremendous amount of houses which have been built on the steel works site, and it's mainly young families living in them. They would all be downwind of this 50m stack right in the middle of the town, next to food factories, schools and shops. We can't tell how relieved we are that the fight is over and we have won."
The proposed Hownsgill Energy Centre would have seen the erection of a 50m chimney and a plant processing up to 60,000 tonnes of commercial and industrial waste per year.
Project Genesis Ltd previously said the scheme would provide a catalyst for investment, jobs and regeneration.
Durham County Councillor Alex Watson, who co-founded Project Genesis, criticised the Government’s interference as ‘rotten to the core’ and said a legal challenge could be mounted.
