The empty corridors at Kingsnorth

Sixty-five staff marked their last day today at the iconic Kingsnorth Power Station, forced to close under EU law.

The coal-fired plant in Hoo made headlines around the world when Greenpeace scaled its 40-year-old smoke stack.

Today, just a few years later, visitors could hear a pin drop in the once-deafening turbine hall.

Just 20 decommissioning staff remain at the Hoo plant, where many long-serving employees retired, were made redundant or moved to other sites.

Operations manager Michael Vann said: “We will remove oils and remove gases from the system so we effectively turn an operational power station into just a lump of metal.”

Kingsnorth’s 650ft smoke stack will then be demolished - which will be a sad day for Steve Cronin and Graham Starkey.

The empty control room

They both joined in 1976 and worked their way up the ranks, becoming firm friends.

“It’s the end of an era,” said grandfather-of-two Mr Cronin, 58. “I don’t think we’ll ever see power stations built like this again. You just couldn’t afford to do it.

“As a shift you work as a very tight-knit group. Probably only a dozen of us working 24/7, 365 days a year. It’s very much a family atmosphere.”

But he added: “I shan’t miss working Christmases, Easters and nights.”

Kingsnorth and nearby Grain were both forced to close when they were deemed too polluting under the EU Large Combustion Plants Directive.

Will the last one to leave please turn out the light?

More than 200 people gathered in the control room when the plant stopped commercial generation in December, earlier than expected.

Since then they have been counting down to the official closure date this Sunday.

All staff had a farewell meeting today with decommissioning manager Paul Graham before leaving their posts of almost 40 years - to a party at the Bells Lane social club.

Mr Starkey, 59, said: “It’s a day you thought would never come. Eighteen months away, it’s coming, it’s coming and ever since December when we stopped generating it’s been very sad.

“We’ve so many memories. When the snow came in the 1980s we were stuck here for five days. There were sleeping bags around and the girls who live locally for the canteen came and did washing and cooking for us.”