Climate activists who climbed The Kelpies appear in court as trial starts

Hannah Taylor, 23, and Lewis Conroy, 22, who both described themselves as experienced climbers, scaled the structure, in the Helix Park, Falkirk, beside the M9 motorway and the Forth and Clyde Canal, in the early morning of Sunday, July 23, and attached a banner to the horse's neck

The park had to be closed, more than 200 visitors had their tours of the structures postponed or cancelled, boat movements on the canal had to be cancelled, with one vessel actually unable to enter with the tide from the nearby River Carron sea lock, and residential mooring owners had to be confined to their narrowboats because of the danger to people below, Falkirk Sheriff Court was told on Tuesday.

Scottish Canals and the Helix Park operator Falkirk Council lost nearly £2000 in revenue as a result, the court heard.

Taylor, of Dronfield Woodhouse, Derbyshire, and Conroy, of Glasgow, accept they scaled the sculpture but deny that doing so constituted a breach of the peace, and are representing themselves, appearing without lawyers at a summary trial which will continue next year.

Lisa Wilson, 41, visitor manager at the Helix, said in evidence she'd received a text at 7am telling her "people were climbing on the Kelpies". When she got there, Taylor and Conroy were "on the cheek of the horse" and later on top of its head, she said.

Questioned by Conroy, she agreed that, as someone living in the area, "it would be a fear for her" if flooding caused by climate change were to obliterate the Kelpies and the Helix Park.

Police negotiator Alan Jenkins said he was "suspended within the structure for 40 minutes" by special operations officers to speak to Conroy and Taylor, who by then were "between the ears" of the horse.

Some 16 rope access officers and four supervisors from Police Scotland's special operations unit at Fettes, Edinburgh, were sent to the scene.

PC Jenkins said Conroy and Taylor seemed "oblivious to the danger" they were in, and that they were causing police, and he was worried that their banner could blow across the motorway. Motorists on the M9 were also said to be sounding their horns, making it obvious they were taking their attention off the road.

PC Jenkins said: "Climbing up on such a structure is not at all recommended. A reasonable person would determine it's not safe to climb on the outside of the structures and that's not their purpose."

He described Conroy and Taylor as "both very polite".

He said: "When I saw them on the top I was frankly amazed at their disregard for their own safety. They didn't have helmets on. My fear was there could be injuries through misadventure – causing a fatality either to themselves or my colleagues working there."

PC Jenkins said he asked them "if there was something reasonable I could say or do to get them to come down".

He said: "They said, 'You can stop using fossil fuel'. I told them that wasn't something I could achieve, so I interpreted that as a refusal."

Special operations officers were therefore instructed to remove the pair, and given the choice of climbing back inside the sculpture or the "more dangerous" option of being lowered down the outside strapped to stretchers, they opted to climb back down inside, accompanied by police. They were then arrested.

PC Andrew Baird, 36, a rope access officer, said the climbing equipment that the pair were using was new, but "absolutely not safe" for use on the Kelpies because the sharp metal edges of the sculpture could have "very easily" severed the climbing straps they were using. He said Conroy's hands were cut by the edges.

He added that there was "no designed access" to the top of the Kelpies.

After three hours of evidence, prosecutor Amy Sneddon closed the Crown case.

Sheriff Craig Harris adjourned the trial to January 30 to allow the accused to consider whether to make submissions of no case to answer, or to give evidence themselves.