Fifteen deny Drax power station protest charges

Fifteen people have denied planning to protest by locking themselves to objects at the UK's biggest power station.

Police from across the country were involved in an operation over protest activity around the Drax power station near Selby, Leeds Magistrates' Court heard earlier.

Twelve defendants were arrested on 8 August at Bentley Urban Farm in Doncaster and three were arrested on the same day on the A645 at Goole, East Yorkshire.

The 15 are accused of having items including climbing ropes, ladders, bolt cutters, glue, gaffer tape and metal poles. All denied a single charge of being equipped to lock on.

Elizabeth Irving, 23, from Fulbourn, Cambridgeshire, Arlan Jones, 25, from Hackney, east London, and Rose Armitage, 22, from Headingley, Leeds, are accused of having Reclaim The Power leaflets, tape, rope, a screwdriver and pliers with them, in a Suzuki Alto, at the A645 with the junction of Key Lane near Goole.

Shaunna Lee Rushton, 33, and Simon Roscoe Belvins, 32, both of Sheffield, and Max Connor, 30, from Headingley, are accused of having bolt cutters, an angle grinder, glue, gaffer tape and metal poles in a Vauxhall Movano.

Laurence Wright, 18, from Oxfordshire, Huw Birch, 37, from Sheffield, and Philip Edward Ball, 54, from Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, are charged with having cable ties, climbing rope and planning notes in a rented panel van.

Rosalind Monaghan, 23, from Leyburn, North Yorkshire, Sean Irving, 26, from Hull, and Hannah Crowther, 25, from Hillingdon, north-west London, are charged with having a box of padlocks with keys, and long metal poles, in a panel van.

Joseph Henry Faire, 22, from Sheffield, and Adam Woods, 27, from Winchester, Hampshire, are accused of having metal tripods, ladders, metal poles, ratchet straps and a list of directions, in another van.

Heather Taylor, 22, from Shirrell Heath, Hampshire, is charged with having bolt cutters and an OS map with Drax power station marked on it, in a Ford Transit van.

District Judge Adrian Lower granted the defendants unconditional bail until their trial at the same court on 22 September.

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