PROTESTORS gathered outside a Montgomeryshire court this week as four environmental campaigners appeared to face charges over the removal of netting from hedgerows near the site of a planned crematorium.

The protest – involving around 20 people – came amid the appearance of two women and two men at Welshpool Magistrates Court on Tuesday, September 28.

The quartet – Victoria Bamford, Jennifer Lampard, Wayne Powell and David Williams – will face trial later this year after denying charges of criminal damage.

The quartet, as well as some supporters outside the court, wore t-shirts bearing the slogan ‘Stop Ecocide. Change the law’. Supporters also held placards that read ‘Please protect nature. We are all part of it’ and ‘Birds’ Lives Matter’.

All four defendants denied a single charge against them. Bamford, 73, Lampard, 49, and Powell, 53, all from Machynlleth, each face a charge of causing criminal damage, while Williams, 75, of Llanidloes, faces a charge of assisting the trio in causing said criminal damage.

The alleged incident relates to the removal of netting from hedgerows near the site of a planned crematorium near Caersws on March 18 this year.

The alleged offences are said to have occurred at a site of land formally known as Ael y Bryn on the B4568, involving damaging netting and cable ties to the value of £420 belonging to Gareth Pugh.

All four – referred to as the 'Aberhafesp Four' by Bamford outside court – declined representation at Tuesday’s hearing. The quartet will face a trial at Welshpool on November 29.

Powys Crematorium Limited wants to build a crematorium at a 13.66-hectare site between Caersws and Aberhafesp, with netting being placed on the nearby hedgerow while the application goes through the planning process.

The netting was installed to prevent birds nesting in hedgerows that could subsequently be removed, the developers beside the plans say, but critics said installing it was in essence pre-empting the outcome of the planning process.