Objectors say plans for a controversial waste facility are "catastrophic to a town trying to regenerate itself".
Residents have protested against an "energy from waste facility" which, if approved, would process up to 60,000 tonnes per year of commercial and industrial waste, recovering heat and power from incineration, at Hownsgill Industrial Park, Consett.
They say the proposed Hownsgill Energy Centre - refused planning permission by Durham County Council last September - would be a blight on the landscape.
Project Genesis has appealed against the council's rejection of the plans in a nine-day public inquiry.
Read more: 'Unmistakable utilitarian waste centre would harm landscape'
Christine Thomas, chair of the Say No to Consett Incinerator campaign group, made a closing statement saying it would harm the landscape, environment, and community: "Never before has the town faced such opposition to a development proposal.
"This opposition comes from a place of wanting to develop our town with a look to the future and not to our past.
"The steelworks closed over 40 years ago. Consett is now a semi-rural town. Most of the landscape's industrial past has been erased.
"The views of a 50m chimney stack with a plume are in our past, and have no place in our future.
"It is clear from the large number of objections and from what has been said by members of the public during the inquiry that they would see the incinerator as an unwelcome blot on the landscape.
"A need for this development has not been established in Consett. Consett needs more jobs - this is fact. This development would bring a mere nine jobs. This too is fact.
"The appellant has failed to convince us that there are any significant benefits to this scheme.
"They have also failed to convince us that there will be no impact on the heritage or the landscape of our beautiful town.
Read more: Consett incinerator objectors tell inquiry it would be a 'blight' on landscape
"The building itself is grossly incongruent with its setting, at twice the size of the other buildings in the Hownsgill Business Park with a 50m chimney which will be seen from miles around.
"Homes and houses and schools and visitors to Consett will wake up one day to looking at a 50m chimney (and plume) that is not here today.
"This is especially upsetting in the knowledge that some of those houses were built and sold by the appellant as three-storey houses with their pleasing semi-rural views.
"To allow this scheme would deal a severe blow to the confidence of the community and therefore its future."
Read more: Incinerator inquiry - 'Consett will not be a dumping ground'
She said putting the development near a heritage trail was "an insult to our past and it severely restricts our future and potential for further economic growth via tourism".
She said proposed benefits had been "pulled out of a hat" during the inquiry, "thrown in at the last moment in a desperate attempt to compensate for the well-evidenced harms".
She argued discounts for generated heat and electricity were "no more than a throwaway comment in an eleventh-hour attempt to gain weight", and claims of the plan being a catalyst for future jobs were "misleading", saying the centre could reduce investment and cause some businesses to consider leaving Consett.
She said proposals for a £120,000-per-year fund to help alleviate fuel poverty were "still very vague at best and ill-considered".
"The paltry crumbs of a fuel poverty fund offered through the Project Genesis Trust goes nowhere near to compensate for the suffering of the whole town if this incinerator goes ahead," she added.
Read more: Consett incinerator row - Richard Holden hits back at plans
She also questioned suggested climate benefits, saying it could have an "adverse carbon impact when compared to landfill".
She added if the appeal were dismissed and the plan refused, "Consett would be free to continue to redefine itself as a quality place to live with a great quality of life.
"If this incinerator was permitted it would offer very little benefit to this site and to the people of Consett. In a town filled with a history of deprivation that is still struggling to this day, this town needs and deserves more opportunities.
"It is still a very firm 'no' from us all. We do not want an incinerator in Consett."
Read next:
Residents speak against 'bad neighbour' incinerator plan
Crowds of objectors protest against proposed energy centre
County Durham incinerator told it will be 'barely noticeable'
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