Police acting as ‘private security’ for Drax power station, say climate activists

The climate protest group Reclaim the Power had planned to hold a camp near Drax power station in North Yorkshire. Photograph: Gary Calton/The Observer

Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth have accused police of acting as “private security” for the UK’s biggest carbon emitter after dozens of pre-emptive arrests forced the cancellation of a climate protest camp near Drax power station.

In a statement signed by almost 150 groups, they called the operation against activists who had spent months planning the camp near the wood-burning power station “an unreasonable restriction of free speech”.