RESIDENTS celebrated as a controversial North-East landmark came down yesterday.
The chimney at Byker Incinerator, in Newcastle, was demolished after a five-year battle between residents and Newcastle City Council.
The authority was fined £25,000 two years ago for allowing toxic ash from the incinerator to be used on allotments paths. When the issue came to light in 2000, the council advised that children should stay away from allotments, vegetables should be washed and peeled before eating and eggs and poultry raised on plots were unsafe.
For most of the 1990s, the plant burnt pellets made from rubbish to heat local homes but it switched to gas, meaning its 25-year-old 426ft-high chimney stack is no longer needed.
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