Hollywood heavyweight Robert Redford has given his backing to eco-campaigners battling to halt a new coal fired plant in Kent.

The actor and film maker has written a statement to be read in full at a film and discussion event - Kent, Coal and Climate Change - taking place in Chatham on Thursday night.

It follows a public meeting on Monday designed to dispel local concern about the planned week of protest at Kingsnorth Power Station on the Hoo Peninsular.

The statement reads: "To those gathered this evening around the proposed coal-fired power plant in your community of Kent, I congratulate all of you for coming together to learn more and to do more.

"Coal power plants - or as you call them stations - are bad for public health; they are bad for the environment close by as well as much further away as pollution is taken by wind and water.

"They contribute greatly to climate impacts in a highly negative manner and thus are ultimately very bad for the local and larger economies."

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