Local protesters hoping to scupper plans to scrap redundant US ships in the United Kingdom claimed the proposals would turn a blossoming coastal town into a "disease-ridden cesspit"
A Government inquiry into plans to allow the rotting American vessels to be dismantled in a dry dock heard from a number of objectors who claim the scheme would cause major health and environmental problems in the area.
Teesside company Able UK has been refused planning permission from the local council to dismantle four US ships at its Graythorp site, near Hartlepool, and a Government planning inspector will now decide the outcome.
During a session in which town residents were allowed to speak out against the proposals a number of objectors made impassioned pleas for them to be rejected.
He said: "What we all need to do is to develop our home town into a cleaner, greener, healthier, happier environment in which human beings may live, learn, work and prosper.
"That means we must completely rid ourselves of the bad, unhealthy legacy of heavy industry that we have unwillingly inherited from the past and instead look forward and strive towards the perfectly achievable goal, which the award of the Tall Ships Race 2010 proves, of establishing our town as an internationally recognised centre of culture, leisure and tourism.
"Not one of a dirty, disease-ridden cesspit situated in the back of beyond that is only fit for the rest of the world to us as a permanent dump for its unwanted toxic and deadly waste."
The Planning Inspectorate hearing, at the town's College of Further Education, centres around Able UK's appeal against Hartlepool Borough Council's refusal of planning permission.
The company has told the hearing that the scheme would bring major economic benefits to the town and that in the wider picture the recycling facilities at the company's Graythorp site, on the outskirts of the town, would fill a national and international gap in the ship recycling market. To learn more about the pending Tall Ships Race visit hartlepool-visitor.com or press link.