A PROTESTER is back home in Llangorse after spending 13 hours up a tree to protect an ancient woodland from being destroyed to make way for the HS2 railway network.

Sian Cox was one of 12 people, who were all part of the Extinction Rebellion, who camped out in the trees in Harefield, north west of London, on Saturday, April 27 and Sunday. April 28 to stop them being felled to make way for the development.

Despite strong winds from Storm Hannah, the 54-year-old spent 10 hours in the tree on the Saturday and three hours in the tree on Sunday.

Sian was looking to protect the old trees in a wood in the Colne Valley which spans an area covering 43 square miles.

Sian said: “It’s one of the stretches of ancient woodland to be felled for HS2 and the rail line has to go through it because it has to run in a straight line because it’s high speed”.

The felling was scheduled to start at 8am and finish at 6pm on both Saturday and Sunday, however contractors were unable to fire up their chainsaws because of the protesters in the trees and the risk of other trees falling on them.

“There’s a road which goes through that area which is an A road so they need a license to be able to close it to carry out the work”.

Sian said: “They can only get a license to close the road so they can fell the trees on a Saturday and Sunday and it takes about three weeks for the license to process.

“We went up the trees when they were licensed to close the road so that license runs out before we come back down.

“They’ll apply for a new license which will be for three weeks time but we’ll go back up again. We’ll keep doing it for as long as it takes until they give up.”

The HS2 is a planned high-speed railway which will directly connect London, Birmingham, the East Midlands, Leeds and Manchester when it is completed.

It is estimated to cost £56 billion and will open in stages between 2026 and 2033. The trains, which will cover 330 miles of track at up to 250 miles per hour, should cut travel times by between 30 and 60 minutes.

The activist said: “I literally just went up the tree and sat there. There was something quite nice and peaceful about it to be honest.

“It was a surprise to my friends because I’m always busy, I don’t normally sit still.

“I didn’t want to take my smartphone with me in case I was arrested because it has all my contacts on there for the protest and everything.”

Sian, who lives with her friend Mark and their dog Lou Lou, said the Saturday was harder than the Sunday due to the strong winds and the cold, although she was wrapped up in warm clothes and blankets.

She said: “We also had lots of lovely people bringing us things like hot drinks. I stuck to hot water because I knew I had to be there a long time and I didn’t dare drink coffee or tea.”

Sian said the protesters arrived at the site after getting up at 6.30am on Saturday to make sure they arrived and were in the trees before the contractors.

She said: “We had to get there even earlier on the Sunday. On the Saturday they weren’t expecting us, but on the Sunday they knew what we were up to.

“To be fair, the security were okay with us. They were counting how many of there were but they were also checking we were okay. They weren’t challenging us and neither were the police.”

HS2 Ltd, which is behind the new railway, has said it will plant a new sapling for every tree which is taken away to make room for the high speed transport line.

Sian said: “We don’t have time for new trees to go to save the planet. We don’t have 250 years to wait for them to grow.

“We need them for the crisis now. It shows our failure as a race or a species to appreciate the natural world rather than aiming purely for economic growth.

“It’s an emergency and our leaders are not taking it as such.”

Sian was arrested for the first time at the Extinction Rebellion protest in London on Wednesday, April 17 at the pink boat, which had the words “tell the truth” written across it in Oxford Circus.

The eco-warrior said while she had previously written letters to her MP and signed petitions, she felt she wanted to do more and was prepared to be arrested when she attended.

She said: “In the extinction rebellion there were designated areas for us and there were areas where we were told to move on, and if you didn’t you could be arrested.

“I don’t know if they could do that with the trees. I assume they could, especially if they had like a cherry picker or something.

“At the Extinction Rebellion, I spent one hour in a police van and then I spent three hours in a cell. I did go straight back to the protest when I was out of the cell”

Sian was part of the Abergavenny and Brecon XR group, who helped to clean up the protest site at the end including chalk graffiti and rubbish, which was based at Oxford Circus before moving to the Marble Arch on the Friday.

Sian said: “Coming out of the tents in the middle of Oxford Circus was amazing. It was so peaceful without all the cars.

“You could see all the buildings on the horizon. We had cyclists thanking us and it was noticeable how clean the air was.

“I had one man come up to me, he couldn’t speak much English, but he thanked us.

“He wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. He point at it and said ‘last week, this was black. Now, it’s clean’.

“I know a lot of people were inconvenienced and they were cross with us for that reason.

“If we knew another way to get our message across we would, but it’s the only way we know of to make sure the government act.

“We’re not aiming to inconvenience people but we did use their inconvenience as a tool.”