Former Oxfordshire County councillor Catherine Bearder has called on the High Representative of the EU to press Russian authorities over the detention of 28 Greenpeace activists.

Mrs Bearder, MEP for South East England, welcomed the news that the charges against the activists – including Chipping Norton resident Philip Ball – had been downgraded from piracy to hooliganism, but said the European Parliament needed to do more to show its support for them.

She said:“I am calling on High Representative Catherine Ashton to take up this issue at the next meeting of EU foreign ministers on November 21, just three days before the activists’ pre-detention hearing.”