PLANS to create a £30m eco-friendly business park, which has been likened to the "Eden Project", have been unveiled.

More than 200 people crammed into the Hilton Dartford Bridge Hotel last week to learn about the scheme.

They included construction companies, potential investors and representatives from Dartford and Gravesham councils and Kent County Council (KCC).

The new sustainable construction centre (SusCon) is scheduled to open in north Kent by 2010.

It will house laboratories to research and design new energy-efficient building methods in a bid to make the UK first with green technology.

It is proposed there will be a centre where tradesmen can gain qualifications and skills needed to work with energy- efficient products such as solar panels.

In August, KCC was given £156,000 by the South East England Development Agency as part of the Government's plan to be more energy efficient by 2010.

The money will be used to develop a business plan to entice investors to raise the estimated £30m needed for SusCon.

By April next year KCC hopes the plans will include firm building designs for SusCon, including a proposed site.

Possible sites include Ebbsfleet, Swanscombe and Northfleet Embankment.

North Kent has been chosen for its close links with London and Europe and the number of building projects going on.

KCC sustainable development manager Steve Rees said: "We haven't targeted, for example, any brownfield areas we could build on.

"This is going to be in the next proposal.

"But I can say we are looking to build something in the region of 20 to 40 acres."

Mr Rees likens SusCon to the Eden Project in Cornwall.

He said: "We obviously won't be housing plants and we can't say it will look like the Eden Project .

"However, we will be similar in the fact the Eden Project educates people about plants and we want to educate people and also grow eco-friendly businesses."

NEED TO CATCH UP

THE conference on November 16 highlighted the need for the UK to catch up with other countries in developing new energy-saving technologies.

The SusCon building will be designed to be energy efficient, with additions such as straw insulation and wind turbines.

Martin Charter, the director of the Centre for Sustainable Design at the University for the Creative Arts in Surrey, spoke at the conference.

He said: "We are way behind other countries in terms of thinking about green issues.

"We have to start thinking innovatively.

"I think the SusCon project will provide us with a space to do this."