Police arrest 100 at climate camp

Police arrested 100 protesters and charged 46 of them during a week-long protest against climate change.

Assistant Chief Constable Gary Beautridge said the majority of arrests at the Camp for Climate Action were for obstruction and public order offences.

But he said that there were also a number of people at the camp in fields close to Kingsnorth power station near Hoo, Kent, who were arrested for more serious offences such as assaulting police officers and possessing bladed instruments.

He said that while the majority of protesters were peaceful and law abiding, a number of people were "intent on causing trouble."

He said: "While there were those involved in the protest who were sensible and responsible, there were also those clearly intent on breaking into the power station to shut it down."

Four people were arrested after they managed to get inside the power station during a mass day of action on Saturday, and a further 19 climbed over the perimeter fence but a spokesman for E.ON, which owns the plant, said the protesters had not affected its power output.

Mr Beautridge denied claims from protesters of heavy-handedness among some of the 1,400 police officers from 26 forces who were deployed to the camp over the past week.

"Our policy was that policing was proportionate to this threat" he said. "The decision to deploy specialist units including dogs and horses is always considered carefully. Because of the level of resistance, officers were authorised to carry batons during two days of the protest.

"There are strict legal standards for their use and we gave clear warnings when any specialist team was deployed, which is our policy. Those intent on breaking the law had the choice and opportunity to stop."

But a spokesman for the Climate Camp said that there had been "widespread condemnation" of tactics used by police during the event. Kevin Smith said: "Our legal team are going to be exhausting every possible channel for holding the police accountable for the draconian use of stop and search measures, for the things they confiscated, and for their violent incursions on to the camp."