MP Sharon Hodgson has welcomed the withdrawal of a planning application for a waste incineration gasification facility at Hillthorn Park, in her constituency.
She previously warned that the proposals were creating more fear than anything she had dealt with in her 15 years in Parliament.
And Mrs Hodgson won a promise from Prime Minister Boris Johnson to look into the issue, after she told him 10,800 constituents had signed petitions opposing the plant.
But developers Rolton Kilbride Limited (RKL) have now scrapped the proposals. Instead, Sunderland City Council is backing a £60m regeneration scheme on the site, which is is expected to create 1,600 new jobs and nine new commercial buildings, to be built by 2024.
Ms Hodgson said: "The announcement that the planning application for an incineration plant at Hillthorn Park has been withdrawn is to be welcomed.
"This announcement follows years of campaigning and effort by the local community and campaign groups who delivered leaflets, gathered thousands of signatures and attended public meetings to ask pressing questions to figures of authority.
"I have been proud to campaign alongside, and represent in Parliament, passionate and knowledgeable groups like UKWIN, No Monster Incinerator in Washington and Washington and Wearside Against Gasification Group.
"’I am pleased that in place of the incineration plant, a new regeneration scheme will be delivered, in which Legal & General have agreed a deal with Sunderland City Council to invest £60m. At a time when our region is suffering due to the economic shock from the coronavirus pandemic, this investment is fantastic news."
The investment will see the 25 hectare Hillthorn Park site in Washington transformed into a manufacturing hub.
A two-phased development plan, subject to planning consent, will see Legal & General develop a total of around 620,000sq ft of industrial space over nine new commercial buildings. Each development will be funded marketed to a range of occupiers who it is hoped will create jobs for local people.
The former plan, which has now been scrapped, was to create a plant gasification technology, currently deployed in Japan, to produce energy from waste after recycling has taken place.
Gasification is the process of converting fuel or waste matter into gas without full combustion. It's not burnt in the conventional manner, but instead is reacted at high temperatures with a limited amount of oxygen or steam.
