A Hexham woman was arrested after taking part in a protest to draw attention to the climate emergency.

Kate Bramfitt joined hundreds of people across the country as part of Extinction Rebellion’s ‘Rebellion of One’ protests. Such protests aimed to highlight government inaction on the climate crisis, two years since Parliament declared a climate emergency.

Kate blocked a road in Jesmond in Newcastle as an act of non-violent civil disobedience on May 1 and was later arrested.

Kate said: “Our kids are losing their future because of our government’s failure to act on the climate crisis. Parliament declared a climate and ecological emergency two years ago today, and yet the Committee on Climate Change and the National Audit Office, whose job is to monitor the Government’s progress, have warned that its climate plans are failing to materialise. The Chief Executive of the Environment Agency has warned that the UK is hitting worst case environmental scenarios that will cause ecosystem collapse, slash crop yields and destroy the infrastructure that our civilisation depends on. How do I prepare my kids for these impacts? How do I explain to them that our government knows these things are happening and yet is failing to act to protect their futures? I don’t want to sit in the road, but I have to do something.”

Kate has also said that she would like to raise awareness of what local people can do about the climate emergency in order to feel hopeful and positive rather than depressed and apathetic, as she once did.

She also quoted Greta Thunberg in saying: “Action brings hope!”

Traffic was also stopped in Newcastle upon Tyne and Durham on May 1, while Tower Bridge in London was forced to partially closed when a protester glued their hand to the road.