by political editor Paul Francis

Proposals for a new Thames Crossing risk blighting the Kent countryside and are "shockingly ill-advised" say countryside campaigners.

The Kent Council for The Protection of Rural England has denounced the plans for a third crossing, saying that if the tolls on the Queen Elizabeth 11 bridge were scrapped, it would not be needed.

Chancellor George Osborne announced last week as part of his Autumn Statement that he intended to give the green light to a third crossing as part of a series of major infrastructure projects aimed at kick-starting the economy.

But the news has dismayed the CPRE.

It argued that a third crossing would ruin the countryside and was a desperate attempt to put the economy back on track.

"We had been somewhat hopeful that this shockingly ill-advised scheme had been put on the back-burner or scrapped altogether as KCC was unlikely to be able to fund the development itself. Unfortunately the government has gone ‘once more unto the breach’ and offered the large part of financing itself," said director Jamie Weir, pictured above.

"We acknowledge that there is excessive congestion at the current Thames crossings, but we feel that since there was a promise to remove the tolls, this should be fulfilled. There is already a tacit acknowledgement that removing the tolls enhances the flow of traffic as when there is an incident, this is exactly what happens and it manages to clear the congestion."

Three possible locations are being considered for the new crossing.

One would be next to the existing crossing; a second would be to build it east of Gravesend. That had been the favoured option of KCC but it has recently announced that it was willing to consider all options.The costs of building a new crossing have been estimated at £1bn.