'Up a tree everything takes longer': HS2 campaigners protest high above parliament

Sixteen days ago, two HS2 campaigners climbed the trees in Parliament Square to protest against the controversial high-speed rail project, and their feet haven’t touched the ground since.

Larch Maxey, 48 and Eli Rose, 26, sleep, eat and wash 50ft up in the air above the constant stream of buses, cars and lorries that loop around the square in the centre of London at all times of the day.

“The hardest thing about being here is the noise,” said Maxey, a former sustainability lecturer and now full-time tree protector. “The traffic and sirens are constant pretty much every night.”

An elaborate contraption of ropes and pulleys keeps their covered hammocks securely suspended between branches and allows them to move around, as well as collect supplies from the ground.

“The first day was a little bit nerve-wracking, just going to bed 50ft in the air, I can’t say I’ve done that before. But you get used to it quite quickly,” said Rose, who only learned to climb a few days before she ascended the trees in Westminster at the start of Extinction Rebellion’s two-week action.

“I’ve been completely overwhelmed by the generosity and support of everyone who’s come to bring us food and water and supplies, and just support the campaign.”

It’s those on the ground who have the real “heroic jobs” said Maxey – while food is sent up, the pair’s waste has to come down and be disposed of in a nearby public toilet. They never get bored, they say, filling their time chatting to passersby, reading books, meditating, working on their phones, or simply carrying out daily tasks like washing and organising.

“Up a tree everything takes about four or five times longer than you would normally expect,” said Rose.

Before this, the pair were based in the protection camps activists have set up along the HS2 line, occupying trees due to be felled to make way for the line.

Earlier this month, HS2 secured an injunction to bar protesters from land where work is being carried out, this time in Colne Valley, Hillingdon, after accusing protesters of climbing over or cutting fences, climbing trees and sitting on machinery.

The ruling came on the day HS2 officially announced the formal start of the project, which it says will increase investment in the north by improving connectivity, and get more cars off the roads by shifting freight, and passengers, to rail. But protesters say it will cause vast environmental destruction, could eventually cost billions of pounds, and is providing an unnecessary service in a post-coronavirus world of home working.

Compared with their experience on these more rural camps, the Parliament Square occupation has been a much easier ride for the pair. Although a number of the protesters who first ascended the trees on 2 September were arrested, those like Maxwell and Rose who managed to firmly establish themselves in the branches have largely been left to their own devices, and the police who used to guard the tree trunks have gone.

The view from the top is very different as well. “Looking at parliament every day gives me motivation to keep going because we’re right here in front of them, asking for a future,” said Eli. “But there is an element of annoyance because they’re continuing to ignore us even though we’re on their doorstep with a solution.”

Larch said he was determined to stay put until there was more widespread support in parliament for the climate and ecological emergency bill, a private member’s bill put forward by the Green MP Caroline Lucas, which has the backing of 64 MPs.

“To avoid societal collapse, we need this kind of action, we need this bill,” said Larch. “We’re gonna keep going until until we get some clear movement on it.”

For both, HS2 is just one glaring example of a much wider problem causing dangerous levels of global heating. Eli says: “The reason I’m up here is because I want children – if we don’t act, there will be food shortages, drought and hunger, it’s going to be a be horrible world and I’m going to have to bring my children into that.”