Kingsnorth power station sits on the banks of the Medway

Green Party MEP Caroline Lucas has sent letters to Gordon Brown and the boss of E.ON UK criticising the planned coal units at Kingsnorth, near Rochester.

In the letter she branded the plans "old fashioned, ill-conceived and environmentally disastrous".

E.ON UK says it will demolish an existing power plant and replace it with one that is 20% cleaner.

The last coal-fired plant to open in the UK was built in Northern Ireland 24 years ago.

Clean carbon plant

Dr Lucas said: "Local residents have lodged over 9,000 objections to the proposals by E.ON to construct a new coal facility at Kingsnorth.

"It is foolhardy at best to even be considering a scheme which will squander so many opportunities to reduce our carbon footprint, especially when Kent is so ideally placed to benefit from wind, tidal and biomass energy generation."

E.ON UK chief executive Paul Golby said the firm had made a public commitment to reduce its carbon emissions by half by 2030.

He said the new power station would hopefully become the UK's first clean carbon demonstration plant, with carbon captured from it and stored in depleted oil fields under the North Sea.

Medway Council gave its approval to a planning application by E.ON UK to build two new cleaner coal units at Kingsnorth at the beginning of January.

The authority did not have the power to grant or reject permission, but was asked to give its views to the government.

The final decision on the plan will now be made by the government.

If approved, E.ON said the power station would be up and running by 2012 and would provide enough energy for 1.5m homes.