Delight as 27,000 tonnes of waste is cleared from fire-hit site
More than 27,000 tonnes of wastehavenowbeenremoved from Sunderland's former Alex Smiles waste site.
The site in Deptford has been closed since private waste operator Alex Smiles went into administration in 2015. It was also the scene of a major fire in May 2018 which took more than three weeks to extinguish.
But in December 2019 Sunderland City Council bought the land and plans to lease it to leading crane manufacturer Liebherr whose business is next door.
Since the start of the year work has been ongoing to remove the waste on the site so that it can be transformed into a manufacturing base.
Now the council has announced that the site has now been completely cleared by Acumen Waste.
Coun Graeme Miller, Leader of Sunderland City Council, said: "I'm absolutely delighted to see this work complete, given the blight this site has been on our city for a number of years. Its clearance and transformation into a major employment site has long been a goal for both the City Council and the Environment Agency.
"You only have to look at the before and after pictures and drone footage to see the scale of the task ahead when we first took over the site and the spectacular progress that's been made in a relatively short space of time.
"This not only helps safeguard jobs at one of our major manufacturing firms but paves the way for its future expansion onto the site."
Andrew Turner, Environment Agency’s area environment manager (regulated industry), said: "It has taken a lot of hard work to get to this point working closely with Sunderland City Council to ensure the waste was cleared in a way that reduced further risk to the environment.
“The majority of the site was cleared before midMarch, and since then waste crews have completed the work following the current social distancing guidelines ensuring the safety of the workers, their families and the wider public.
"This joint effort will help the site prepare for the next chapter of its life, and it was made possible with support from the Treasury."
Liebherr, which is looking to expand its Sunderland base, currently employs 200 people in highly skilled jobs.