MORE than 200 people from Herefordshire will be travelling to London on Friday to take part in a climate change protest.

Extinction Rebellion members in Herefordshire will join an anticipated 100,000 people taking part in the protest.

The group from the county will also take their concerns about pollution of the river Wye to the Department for the Environment and Rural Affairs.

There will also be a re-enactment of street theatre performed in Hereford in which Queen Wye met ‘the rat’, intended to represent those who pollute the river.

Concerns about the state of the Wye have been increasing for several years.

Three years ago, in 2020, there was an algal bloom covering much of the river.

A study by Lancaster University in May 2022 showed that up to 70 per cent of the phosphorus in the river comes from agriculture with 3,000 tonnes of it entering the Wye every year.

While the Herefordshire climate change activists are in London, there will also be a protest staged at Eign Gate in High Town on Saturday at 11am.

The protesters say that the Government is going back on promises made at the COP 26 global conference in Glasgow in 2021 and at the Conference of Partners.

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Extinction Rebellion has been taking the temperature of local opinion with a market stall in High Town in Hereford over five Saturdays in March and April.

They claim to have spoken to hundreds of people about what they describe as a ‘climate crisis.’

According to the group, 70 per cent of those questioned said they were ‘terrified’ or ‘seriously concerned’ about the climate crisis, while five per cent were not worried. The remaining 25 per cent are described as ‘slightly worried’ or ‘a bit uneasy.’