CHILDREN picketed Powys County Council’s (PCC) county hall headquarters in Llandrindod Wells on Friday, May 24, to protest about catastrophic climate change.

The years four to six pupils of nearby Ysgol Trefonnen in Llandrindod chose to emulate their elder siblings from the Ysgol Calon Cymru secondary school,  who were also “striking” for climate change.

They took to the streets just like many others from schools across the UK to highlight the oncoming climate change disaster humanity is sleepwalking towards, unless things change.

Their protest coincided with a meeting of the Learning and Skills Scrutiny Committee when education bosses would be present.

The education portfolio holder, Cllr Myfanwy Alexander (Independent – Dyffryn Banw), criticised the protestors for being absent during school time.

Parent Lucy Burden spoke to the Local Democracy Service: “It’s the campaign led by Greta Thunberg, the high school pupils are protesting in Builth Wells.

“Our children Felix, Teilo, Tom and Thirza were determined to take part as well.

“They had been planning to strike and Thirza made the T shirts.”

At county hall they managed to meet the Head of Education, Dr Alec Clark.

Ms Burden, added: “They talked about their concerns and about their school topic with Dr Alec Clark, who was very supportive and who said he would be replying to their letter via the school.

“He said he would offer to come in to school and talk about environmental issues.”

Ms Burden added that her elder daughter, Elin, said that their strike in Builth Wells had also been successful.

This follows a similar protest which took place in March when a letter was delivered to the Brecon and Radnorshire MP, Chris Davies, and one was delivered to Llandrindod Wells Town Council.

At the committee meeting Cllr Alexander arrived late and explained: “I wasn’t being rude earlier, I was trying to avoid a group of young people.

“I have a lot of interest in their political activism, but it’s not the policy of this council to allow children to take time out of a school day.

“If they had come here on a holiday day, I would have been more than happy to meet them.”

Cllr Alexander added: “This is an unauthorised absence and we cannot be seen to be condoning it.”

“We can’t allow youngsters who should be in school to take part in political protest.

“Although I would be more than happy to meet them in their schools to discuss the issues they have.”

Swedish teenager Greta Thurnberg has made global headlines in recent months, through her efforts to highlight climate change.

This includes encouraging students to demonstrate, demanding political action on climate change while ‘on strike’ from school.

She has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize and earlier this year took her message to Westminster where she met MPs. And also The Vatican where she met The Pope.