AN ENVIRONMENTAL campaigner accepts he may keep getting himself arrested - and has called on the prime minister and her environment secretary sit down for talks with bridge strike group Extinction Rebellion.

Rodbourne man Tristan Strange says he has already spent 19 hours in Belgravia police station this week. And the 37-year-old former student told the Swindon Advertiser he is prepared to do so again.

Since Monday, Mr Strange has been part of the group, organised by campaigners Extinction Rebellion, occupying major routes around London.

He claimed he was arrested on Monday night, as police moved protestors from Waterloo Bridge. The campaigners, who want politicians to take more radical steps to slow climate change, were moved to the Marble Arch area.

Mr Strange said: “If it looks like the camp is going to be taken again, I will be prepared to be arrested again. We will try and hold it for as long as possible.

“I’ll be prepared to stop when environment secretary Michael Gove and prime minister Theresa May are prepared to talk to us.

“When the negotiations start, I’ll stop protesting for a while.”

In total, more than 300 Extinction Rebellion protestors have been arrested by police. Mr Strange said the environment inside Belgravia police station on Monday night had been “incredible”. Officers were friendly and a woman in the cell next to his had begun singing protest songs, prompting a chorus from the other detainees.

Half a dozen campaigners from Swindon travelled up to London this week to join the Extinction Rebellion protests.

The group prepared a series of mock street signs and put them up outside landmarks. Downing Street became Drowning Street, in a nod to the threat of rising sea levels. Trafalgar Square was renamed Traffic-jam Square.

John Ransford, 62, from Highworth, said: “We’re calling it climate breakdown, because it’s not change anymore. The climate is breaking down.”

He cited a 2018 report by a UN committee that the world had 12 years to take urgent steps to tackle climate change. If insufficient action is taken, experts say the risk of drought, floods and extreme heat could become much higher.

Mr Ransford said: “If we don’t do this now, we’re going to have intergenerational violence.”

More than half a million people in London have been affected by road closures, traffic gridlock and disruption to transport and businesses since Monday. Extinction Rebellion says it plans to continue the protests into next week.

Yesterday, the authorities disabled Wi-Fi at Tube stations in a bid to stop campaigners intent on disrupting Underground services from co-ordinating their efforts.

The Metropolitan Police was approached for comment.