Lower Thames Crossing: Postcard protest over tunnel bid

The postcards include scenes of school children wearing pollution masks

Campaigners opposing plans for a new Lower Thames crossing east of Gravesend have begun a postcard protest.

Shorne Action Group has claimed the crossing will have a devastating impact on the 10-mile radius around north-west Kent villages.

Highways England has said a tunnel connecting Tilbury to Gravesend is its preferred route for the crossing.

It said the tunnel offered the best economic benefits and journey time improvements.

Campaigners said their campaign had given residents in the villages of Shorne and Chalk a chance to put questions to government ministers and decision-makers.

Spokesman Sharon Goring said: "We are on track to send over 1,500 individual, personal questions and we hope - and expect - the courtesy of individual responses."

The postcards include scenes of traffic congestion and schoolchildren wearing pollution masks to show the tunnel's potential impact, she added.

She said other villages in the area, including Higham, were planning to join the campaign.

Campaigners are also raising issues of traffic congestion