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Police remove activists from Just Stop Oill during their protest outside Harrods department store in Knightbridge, London. Picture date: Thursday October 20, 2022.
ENVIRONMENTAL and wildlife groups are urging peers to throw out the “most restrictive and chilling” measures in the Public Order Bill as the legislation returns to Parliament tomorrow.
A letter signed by 38 leading UK conservation organisations, including the RSPB, Wildlife Trust and the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT), highlights concerns over the anti-protest legislation’s “chilling effect” on the right of ordinary citizens to protest.
“Over many decades we have witnessed the vital importance of peaceful protest in raising the alarm about the urgent threat of climate catastrophe and the decline of nature, and pressing decision makers … to act to protect people and the planet,” the letter, addressed to peers, reads.
Evidence to peers from medical leaders, patient safety officials and the children’s commissioner has intensified fears that the Bill’s safeguards are inadequate, writes ADAM JAMES POLLOCK
