Please throw out the Kent International Gateway plans.

That was the message from Maidstone council leader Chris Garland who has written to Eric Pickles, the minister who will make the final decision over the KIG proposal.

Mr Pickles is the new coalition government’s Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government.

He will decide on the bid to build a road/rail freight interchange across 285 acres of green countryside at Bearsted, following the public inquiry which concluded at Christmas.

Cllr Garland told Mr Pickles he realised the minister had many pressing and important issues to deal with, but that the KIG application was of “extreme importance” to the people of Maidstone.

Mr Garland said: “The applicant has tried to portray the Kent International Gateway as a sustainable development.

“But Maidstone council rejected the proposal because they could not prove the need for KIG, or why it should be built in the countryside adjacent to an area of outstanding natural beauty, especially as they had not demonstrated that the proposal would lead to any reduction in CO2 emissions.”

The inspector’s report from the inquiry has been with the government since April, but Mr Pickles’ predecessor had not made a decision before he lost his post at the general election.

The council is hoping the new political make-up of the government will be more sympathetic to the anti-KIG cause.

Both Maidstone council, Tory-controlled Kent County Council and the local MP, Conservative Hugh Robertson, had opposed the KIG scheme from the outset.

Cllr Garland has also circulated his letter to Greg Clark, the Conservative MP for Tunbridge Wells, who as the new minister for decentralisation has also had planning added to his portfolio.

Cllr Garland said: “I urge you to dismiss the KIG appeal.”