A KNIGHTON woman says an anti-nuclear protest outside Parliament in which she and fellow campaigners chained themselves to the railings has been a huge success.

Angie Zelter is the founder of Trident Ploughshares who led a protest on Wednesday urging the British Government to support a move to establish a United Nations Treaty banning nuclear weapons.

Ms Zelter and seven colleagues from Knighton travelled up to London for the protest, which took place on Wednesday in front of the Houses of Parliament.

Altogether 45 peace campaigners chained themselves to the railings with other peace campaigners supporting them, including members of Whitton Voice Choir.

The peace campaigners were carrying out the stunt to highlight the current talks to establish the UN Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). So far 122 countries have agreed to sign the Treaty and 58 countries have signed the Treaty intending to ratify it later. Only 50 states need to ratify the treaty for it to become law.

But the UK has refused to be present at the many preparatory rounds of negotiations.

Ms Zelter, 68, said the action had created lots of media interest and none of the peace campaigners had been arrested. She said: "It went very well. We told the MPs and the police we would only be there from 1.30pm – during (Prime Minister’s) question time when (the Green MP) Caroline Lucas was making our presence know in the House of Commons – until 5pm. So we are now all home and safe with no court cases pending, which is great.

"The timing was in order to give the MPs time to come out and show their support for the Nuclear Ban Treaty that will soon become international law. We liaised with the police and told them that Trident Ploughshares was organising the whole event and were known to them as reliable and peaceful and that we were only chained to prevent them removing us from our lawful protest and that they should leave us as we would go at 5pm.

"This worked and there were thankfully no arrests. We handed out hundreds of leaflets to tourists asking if their country had signed up yet.

"Of the 45 people chained to the railings 15 were from Wales and of these 8 were from Knighton. We also had the Whitton Voices choir of around 16 people singing songs about peace and disarmament.

"The well known folk singer Leon Rosselsson also came and supported us. Five MPs also came out, including Ceredigion MP Ben Lake and two others from Wales."

"What we want is for the British Government o contribute to the multilateral talks at the UN and sign and ratify the Treaty. For too long the British government has claimed that it would support multi-lateral moves for a nuclear free world. Now is the ideal opportunity for this."

Last year the United Nation adopted the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). Enough states have already signed it to bring it into force, although they need to put it through their own legislative bodies. This process will take about two years.