A MEMBER of the European Parliament has joined the fight to stop the Kent International Gateway project.

Dr Caroline Lucas (Green) has backed opponents of the project to build a road-rail freight interchange on 264 acres of countryside.

Dr Lucas, who represents the South East of England, has signed a petition against the plans and pledged to make a formal objection to Maidstone council.

She said freight needed to be moved from road to rail to reduce carbon emissions and combat climate change.

But she added: "However, this is a crazy location for a depot as lorries will have to travel through the busiest sections of the M25 to get to it.

"It would be better to build it on the M25 or to construct several, smaller road-rail freight interchanges to minimise the distance lorries travel to reach them.."

The company behind the project has yet to submit a formal planning application for the depot, but outline plans suggest there will be up to 2,000 lorry movements a day, transporting containers that will then be loaded on to trains bound for the rest of Britain or Europe.