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Environmental campaigner charged over HS2 tunnel protest


By PA News

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An environmental activist evicted from the network of tunnels beneath Euston Square Gardens in protest at the HS2 railway line is due to appear in court.

Larch Maxey, 48, was removed from the site by bailiffs on Monday after almost a month underground and was handed over to the Metropolitan Police.

The activist, from the group HS2 Rebellion, has now been charged with failing to surrender in relation to a previous court appearance, theft and obstructing or disrupting a person engaged in lawful activity.

Maxey, a geography lecturer, is due to appear at Highbury Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday morning.

The network of tunnels near the London station was created in secret by protesters who object to the redevelopment of Euston Square Gardens as part of the high-speed railway line.

They were discovered on January 26.

Maxey became the fifth campaigner to leave the tunnels, after a 16-year-old boy left last Wednesday after 22 days underground.

A security guard stands next to what remains of the anti-HS2 camp at Euston Square Gardens (Victoria Jones/PA)
A security guard stands next to what remains of the anti-HS2 camp at Euston Square Gardens (Victoria Jones/PA)

The teenager has been released on bail until mid-March.

Scott Breen, 46, from West Drayton, west London, left the tunnels on February 15 and is due to appear at Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court on Friday.

Two other anti-HS2 campaigners who emerged from the tunnels earlier this month have had breach of bail proceedings brought against them for their role in the protest dropped.

Lachlan Sandford, 20, known as Lazer, was said to have breached bail conditions related to proceedings at Wycombe Magistrates’ Court in November.

A 17-year-old protester was accused of breaching bail conditions relating to court proceedings at St Albans Magistrates’ Court in December last year.

The charges against both were withdrawn at Highbury Magistrates’ Court.

But their bail conditions were amended, barring them from interfering with the workings of any HS2 site and not to enter, be present, or remain in any HS2 site or building which is clearly identified as such by way of a sign, fence or other marking.

There are believed to be just two remaining protestors in the tunnel – veteran environmental campaigner Dan Hooper, known as Swampy, and 18-year-old Blue Sandford, daughter of Scottish landowner Roc Sandford.

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