KENT Green MEP Dr Caroline Lucas has criticised the "Cameron Conservatives" on Medway Council for backing the plan for a new coal-fired plant at Kingsnorth power station.

Dr Lucas, a member of the European Parliament's influential Environment Committee, said the issue had provided Tory councillors with the opportunity to show they were taking green matters seriously.

Instead, she argued, they had revealed they were no different to the "old fashioned" Conservatives with their anti-environment stance which was "giving out a negative signal to the rest of the world".

Dr Lucas said: "Given that Medway Council has a very strong Conservative majority, this should have been a real test as to whether or not David Cameron's Conservatives are serious about Green issues, the environment and climate change.

"They keep saying climate change is a priority and we should take it seriously, but this does not seem the case and it seems quite extraordinary that a Conservative-dominated council has given a green light to such old-fashioned, inefficient and climate damaging installations."

The council's development control committee voted in favour of the application by power generating company E.ON for two coal-fired electricity generating units at Kingsnorth.

Dr Lucas said the decision suggested the Tories were more "anti the environment" than they ever were.

She stressed that it was a particularly disappointing move following the Bali climate summit when all Government leaders around the world agreed to move away from fossil fuels towards energy renewables and efficiencies.

"The first opportunity to demonstrate that they are serious about that and basically they have fallen at the first hurdle," she added.

"We are supposed to be using 20 per cent of our energy from renewables by 2020. Our country is already miles behind other countries in Europe in terms of meeting that target.

"I know E.ON said this coal fire station will be more efficient than the one it replaces. But that is not very difficult. This new one will still waste a huge amount of the energy that it generates, as much of it will be lost up the cooling towers.

"However more efficient it is, it's still going to be producing significantly more emissions than energy efficiencies or renewables. It is still not the right way forward.

"It has given out a negative signal to the rest of the world. It's an incredibly backward step in all respects."