Human rights group Amnesty brands arrests of Wellingborough tree protesters 'deeply concerning'

A human rights campaign group has expressed its concern following the arrest of four tree activists in Wellingborough - including an 84-year-old yesterday (Wednesday 22).

They were arrested by Northants Police for aggravated trespass as they protested against the felling of an historic avenue of lime trees.

The trees are to be chopped as part of the £1 billion Stanton Cross development, the remodelling of the London Road/Embankment roundabout and associated utility works.

On Wednesday, protesters stood in the way of lorries carrying equipment, leading to a stand-off with Northants Police finally resorting to bringing in 11 officers to clear the designated construction zone – part of London Road.

Oliver Feeley-Sprague, military, security and police director at Amnesty International UK, said: “These arrests give an unsavoury flavour of what could become the norm under draconian legislation that the government is trying to push through. These arrests are deeply concerning.

“Arrest at an entirely peaceful protest by local residents trying to prevent the destruction of a large number of historically-important and protected trees appears ludicrously heavy-handed.

“Northamptonshire Police’s actions should serve as a wake-up call over the dangers of giving police yet more powers to clamp down on legitimate protests.

“Amnesty has long been concerned that police officers misuse their powers to create a chilling effect on people’s rights to speak out about issues that they care deeply about.”

The human rights organisation says it ‘stands in solidarity with the people of Wellingborough’ and has urged the authorities to ‘respect people’s right to protest peacefully’.

A spokesman for Amnesty said: “Amnesty has long held the view that the police have a very broad range of existing powers at their disposal to deal with offences that may take place during a protest.

"The organisation is concerned that the breadth of those powers already give scope for subjective over-policing and potential abuse of those powers. 

“Shortly before the Public Order Bill’s Report Stage last month, the Government added amendments to define ‘serious disruption’ in relation to certain new offences, limit the defence of reasonable excuse, and create new triggers for the police to impose conditions on whether a protest can even take place.

“Together, they constitute a drastic, further expansion of police powers, allowing the police to intervene in and impose conditions on protests that have a “more than minor” rather than “serious” impact.

"Far from clarifying matters, these amendments exacerbate legal uncertainty and threaten to further restrict the right to protest.”

In response to Amnesty, Neighbourhood Policing Inspector Miriam Kiernan from Northants Police said: “We have been facilitating a peaceful protest at Stanton Cross in Wellingborough over the past few days, to ensure the protestors had a safe place to express their rights to protest.

“After being issued with a direction notice to leave the site – both verbally and in written form - three of the protestors breached the aggravated trespass notice.

"They were given every opportunity by officers to return to the other side of the fence, which they refused to do.

“They were arrested and taken into police custody.

"In interview they admitted breaching the notice and accepted a community resolution disposal.

"A fourth person who was arrested was released with no further action.”