Towering new electricity pylons planned for east Kent will scar the Canterbury countryside, claim three MPs who want the scheme scrapped.

National Grid last week submitted an application for the 70 pylons, which will stretch for 12 miles from Richborough to the Broad Oak Road sub-station – tapping into electricity supplies from Belgium.

In the face of strong local opposition, it has already chosen its "preferred route" and sent the proposal to the Planning Inspectorate.

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But MPs Julian Brazier, Sir Roger Gale and Craig Mackinlay have combined forces to attack the project – called the Richborough Connection – and are writing to the government to lodge their opposition.

In a joint statement they say: "This line of proposed pylons would scar some of east Kent’s most beautiful landscapes with massive and intrusive structures.

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"They would effectively prohibit the building of a vital Broad Oak reservoir designed to provide the area with its future water supply and would culminate in a monstrosity towering over the historic Canterbury city skyline at a height above the Bell Harry Tower.

"Of course we recognise the need to ‘keep the lights on’, but this scheme is neither desirable nor necessary.

"We are told there is no alternative but it is clear that this bad choice has everything to do with money unwisely spent pursuing an unacceptable option in the teeth of advice and very little to do with maintaining a power supply."

The MPs claim there is a "perfectly viable" undersea route from Zeebrugge to Kingsnorth which could connect to the National Grid with "no need for unsightly infrastructure whatsoever".

They add: "We shall, together, be lodging objections to this proposal with the Planning Inspectorate and we hope that, rather than wasting further money on consultation and an inquiry, it will be denied the oxygen of further consideration.

"The National Grid need to go back to the drawing board and, if they want to import electricity from mainland Europe, come up with an underwater scheme that is environmentally acceptable."