AN ALTON climate campaigner has said she is “not sorry” for the actions that led to her recent arrest in London.

However, Eleanor Hill, 65, condemned last month’s graffiti seen in Alton and said it can not have been committed by a fellow member of Extinction Rebellion as such action goes against the group’s “code of conduct”.

Members agree to “own up to whatever we do”, she explained, and “in actions that might include spraying slogans we would use washable paints and arrive equipped with the means to remove it”.

“This being the case I would urge whoever is responsible for the graffiti to make themselves known to the police and face the consequences,” she added.

“Then, if they are keen to continue campaigning about the climate crisis, join a local group.”

Ms Hill is no stranger to the risks involved when out on the campaign trail.

“I was arrested on Millbank as part of a protest focussing on the risk of food scarcity in the future, if we do not take sufficient action to mitigate against the climate and environmental crisis,” she added.

“As a 65 year old mother of two, I can’t say that getting arrested was ever on my bucket list, but I am not sorry to have done it and would do it again if I felt it would serve to bring the message to more people and persuade the government to take urgent action.”

She looks forward to having her say in court where her defence will be: “as when a house is on fire, it is not a crime to break a window to let people out”. So in a “climate emergency”, it is “not a crime to block a road to draw attention to the dangers we face”.

For the “past three decades” she has “campaigned using all the traditional methods”, such as “letter writing, signing petitions, going on marches and giving talks” but “nothing has been even a fraction as effective as the civil disobedience instigated by Extinction Rebellion over the past year”.

A concern for some people is the movement’s more extreme political views, highlighted by the anarchist symbol sprayed on buildings in Alton.

Ms Hill said Extinction Rebellion is a “very loose grouping of people from all walks of life and all political views”.

There are some members from every end of the political spectrum but “a majority in the middle”.

“However, we are all agreed that we cannot hope to prevent climate catastrophe if we carry on with business as usual and that does mean the version of consumerist capitalism we are currently operating under will have to change,” she added.