Councillor sits in road to highlight climate message
A Scarborough councillor stopped traffic in the town on Saturday as part of an Extinction Rebellion sit-in protest.
Theresa Norton, a Labour member of Scarborough Council who represents Eastfield, sat on the road in St Nicholas Street in a bid to raise awareness of what she described as “the climate and ecological emergency”.
Cllr Norton, 62, said: “This was something that frightened me very much and it was not an easy thing to do. The message on my board read ‘I am terrified that ‘business as usual’ will rob our children of their future, because of the climate crisis’.
“The fact is that our Government declared a climate emergency two years ago but, apart from making statements about urgency and setting new target dates, they have done next to nothing in real terms.”
She accused the Government of adopting a ‘business as usual’ policy which has included plans for new airport
runways, road-building projects and the HS2 railway link up.
“It is no wonder that Greta Thunberg and children of the next generation are frightened for the future they will inherit from our Government’s lack of action,” added Cllr Norton. “It is for their sakes that I took action and I hope that the people of Scarborough will read more about the realities of the situation and urge our Government to do more, much more, to keep us and the next generations safe.”
More than 200 people did similar sit-ins around the UK on Saturday, said Extinction Rebellion.