ENVIRONMENTAL activists walked across Swindon to campaign against climate change and voiced their concerns ‘peacefully’.

Extinction Rebellion campaigners took to the streets of Old Town on Saturday morning in a parade highlighting climate emergency and encouraging the government to take immediate action.

Activist Tristan Strange said: “For me, it was about giving the people of Swindon a chance to show their concerns about the environment.

“People now better understand the issue.

“We want everyone’s voice to be heard. Change has to happen now.

“This event helps to raise awareness and build community, get some more regular members into our group.

“It is really important that people in Swindon show how they feel about things more often.

“We are politically very quiet, so it was to get involved.”

The parade led by the Ministry of Samba started at the entrance of Lawns Park on High Street and went across Old Town.

Around 100 people attended the event, including three teenage girls from the Extinction Rebellion SN1 Youth group.

Alice Tulissio, 17 said: “We are here because it is just very important to show the government and the world the emergency, and we just want more people to get involved.”

And Alice Manchip, 16, added: “As young people, it is hard to feel like we have a voice because we are too young to vote, and this is our way of communication to the government and communicating what kind of change we want to see.

“We just want to try and reach a sort of stability. We are spreading the work essentially through social media because people of our age are all on social media.”

The group organises various events throughout the year to raise awareness among young people.

Adrianna Wolczuk, 16, said: “Every second Friday we do a strike with the litter pick. The group is always growing. We did a sort of parade last Friday through the town centre.

“Around 15 people joined us and we had a lot of positive feedback.”

It was followed by music, picnic and other activities. Alcohol, drugs and bad behaviour were strictly forbidden.

Sergeant Dave Flynn said: “It was very peaceful; we were here today just to make sure they were safe.

“Our main job is to put a safe bubble, so they can do their protest, so we just closed a few roads off. It went very smoothly.”