UK barrister specialised in upholding the rights of environmental activists to protest and protect the natural world.
Paul Powlesland is a barrister at Garden Court Chambers who specialises in upholding the rights of environmental activists to protest and protect the natural world, and uses environmental law and regulations to defend trees, rivers and wildlife.
Powlesland lives aboard a narrowboat called 'Thieving Magpie' on the River Roding in the east of London, where he has spent years encouraging local communities to care for waterways through practical conservation work. As a boat dweller, he is also determined to protect the rights of boaters and other Traveller groups.[1]
On 12 September 2022, Paul Powlesland was threatened with arrest in Parliament Square in London for being a Blank Paper Protestor in relation to the #NotMyKing campaign.[2]
In March 2023, Paul Powlesland was one of more than 120 lawyers who, organised by a group called Lawyers Are Responsible, published a Declaration of Conscience in which they said they will refuse to act for new fossil fuel projects or to prosecute members of campaign groups opposing new fossil fuel projects, such as Extinction Rebellion, Insulate Britain and Just Stop Oil.[3]
Illegal waste dumps
In February 2026, founder of the River Roding Trust Paul Powlesland – together with a group of volunteers – decided to clear a heavily polluted 250 metre stretch of Alders Brook, a tributary of the River Roding in Barking, East London. They removed more than 200 bags of rubbish along with branches, thick layers of silt, weeds, discarded household appliances, used needles and even abandoned weapons. Their goal was to restore the natural flow of the river and remove years of accumulated waste. However, within a few months, Powlesland found himself under investigation by the Environment Agency for carrying out restoration work without official permits, and in June 2026 was reported to be facing up to 2 years in jail.[4]
In defence of the group's action, Powlesland raised a petition with some 30,000 signers, and wrote:
The proliferation of serious illegal waste dumps around the country shows that the Environment Agency has completely lost control of the problem and the illegal waste criminals are winning. As stinking mounds of waste pile up in ancient woodlands, beside our rivers and in what should be green rolling countryside, it is nature that is paying the price.
One of the largest illegal waste dumps in the country has now been discovered next to the River Roding at Stapleford Tawney, near Epping. Nobody knows what exactly is dumped on this 20,000 square metre site, or how much waste it contains, but it is certainly 10’s of thousands of tonnes. Shockingly, rubbish has been dumped on this site since 2024 and the Environment Agency (EA) has known about it for at least a year. Even now, however, the EA has not shut down the site by obtaining a legal closure order, physically blocking off the site and putting in CCTV monitoring.
On this site, we are demanding that the EA:
- Shuts down the site (physically & legally) within 7 days.
- Begins investigations into who has been dumping on this site & prosecutes where possible.
- Takes emergency measures to stop pollution of the River Roding by introducing a buffer along the edge of the site, blocking landfill leachate and carrying out water quality testing.
- Undertakes to remove all the waste on the site, given that most of it has been dumped when the EA were fully aware of the site, but took no action.
Whilst we need action to prevent an environmental catastrophe at the Roding waste dump, it must not be forgotten that this is part of a much broader problem, in which the EA has seemingly lost control of illegal waste dumping & seems completely incapable of upholding the law and protecting nature, rivers and landscapes from this scourge.
We therefore also call on the government to enact the following policies:
- The EA must act to shut down- both legally & physically- any significant (defined as at least 50 tonnes of waste) waste site within three days of being notified of it.
- The EA will have a clear legal responsibility to remove any waste from an illegal waste site that is dumped there after the EA has been notified of the existence of the site.
- More budget for investigating illegal waste dumping and much higher penalties for those caught, which should be in line with other organised criminal activities (eg drug, weapons and human trafficking).
Without these changes, more communities and rivers like the Roding will be destroyed by the scourge of organised criminal waste dumping.[5]
Lawyers for Nature
Paul Powlesland is the co-founder of Lawyers for Nature and regularly gives talks and workshops on the rights of nature, the relationship between the law and the natural world and what barristers and other lawyers should do in a time of climate and ecological emergency.
On 4 February 2023, Paul Powlesland tweeted:
On my way in to the Bar Council meeting this morning, I overheard someone talking about increasing fees for prosecutors. I said we don't want more prosecutors if they will be used to oppress peaceful climate activists. Just found out the person I was talking to was the DPPMax Hill![6]
After the Bar Council meeting, Paul Powlesland tweeted:
"My first Bar Council meeting today & although many of my arguments about the complicity of the Bar in the climate crisis are controversial, this suggestion of making it as easy as possible for barristers to act pro bono in climate-related cases is hopefully one we can all support."[7]
A year on, we review the @SaveOaks #Campaign in @wildlondon_SHW, managed by @WildLondon in which we advised the #activist intervention, blocked an #injunction and won a #TPO to #defend a pair of veteran #oaks. Please read @paulpowlesland's #casestudy here.[8]
Arrived at Abbey Wood Station at 4:30am to make sure I got a place on the first ever #elizabethline train & I’m the only one here! Had a selfie with the station manager as the very first official Elizabeth Line customer, & got given a cute souvenir pin. Now I wait…
The Chief Operating Officer of the Elizabeth Line just came out of the station to give the first people in line free lapel badges, which was a nice gesture #Elizabethline
After a journey of a speed, smoothness and quietness that we are just not usually used to in London, the first ever Elizabeth Line train arrived at Paddington.[10]
Interviewed on BBC Radio 2 by Jeremy Vine shortly after midday, Paul Powlesland explained that the first train coming from Paddington left 3 minutes later than the Abbey Wood train.[11]
