Climate protest ends with arrests

A climate change protest being staged on top of a power station chimney has come to an end.

The nine environment activists who remained at Didcot Power Station, Oxfordshire, after breaking into the site on Monday came down of their own accord in the early hours of Wednesday.

The four women and five men, who spent two nights on the emissions chimney, were arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass, Thames Valley Police said.

A further 11 people who staged a protest at the site's coal conveyer had been arrested on Monday.

A spokeswoman for RWE npower, which owns the site, said: "We can confirm that the nine protesters that were at the top of our chimney stack came down of their own accord at around 4am.

"We are relieved that they have come down safely."

The RWE npower spokeswoman said she believed the nine protesters left the 200m tower because they "got tired".

She added: "They hadn't managed to affect our running. We were still generating power."

The group, who met at the Camp for Climate Action earlier this year, used power tools to cut through gates at the power station.

Referring to security measures in place at the site, the spokeswoman added: "We were going through a full security upgrade with enhanced fences and lighting. It was unfortunate it wasn't completed when the protesters turned up on Monday."