PROTESTERS set up camp at one of Oxford’s busiest junctions today to raise awareness of climate change.

Local people, as well as students from both Oxford and Oxford Brookes universities, put up two large tents on The Plain roundabout in East Oxford shortly before noon.

They planned to stay for 12 hours, holding workshops and seminars before serving a vegan meal for 40 people.

Will McCallum, 21, a student at Oxford University who lives in Cowley, said: “This is all about getting people to wake up to the realities of climate change.

“There isn’t really a better place to get people aware of it than this roundabout, stuck in the middle of Oxford.

“We have had toots and thumbs up from quite a few people.”

As well as attracting the attention of some of the thousands of people using the busy roundabout every day the protesters also gained the notice of four police officers, who took photographs of those involved.

Police spokesman Claire Gourlay said: “Police officers have attended and spoken to the protesters, helping to facilitate a lawful and peaceful protest.”

It had been planned to start workshops at midday, but the group put them off due to heavy rain, starting with their first session on permaculture at about 3.30pm.

Wadham College student Sophie Lewis, 21, of Cowley Road, led a workshop on whether such a thing as a ‘green’ job could exist under capitalism.

She said: “I think the wider climate camp movement is an incredibly important aspect of a global civil disobedience movement, which is gathering momentum to combat climate change.”

Between 40 and 50 people were expected to take part in the climate camp during the 12-hour peaceful protest.

Several universities across the country held similar climate camps.

Power for the camp came from a battery powered by a bicycle, which organisers spent four hours on the previous day to provide sufficient energy for the event.

As well as workshops, there was live music, a DJ and slam poetry.

The camp follows a protest at Didcot Power Station last week when campaigners camped for two nights on one of the chimneys.

Twenty people were arrested, and have all been bailed.

fbardsley@oxfordmail.co.uk