You may not have heard of 64-year-old Andrew Dames, a Cambridge-based Quaker, engineer and father of four. You probably didn’t know that he walked 700 miles from the Shetlands to London this summer, celebrating a Scottish ruling that approval of the huge Shetland oilfield, Rosebank, was unlawful, and urging the UK Government to reject any new appeals to develop the oilfield. Yes you’ve guessed it, Andrew is a climate activist passionate about No New Oil.

Back in 2022 Andrew was also one of the Just Stop Oil protestors who climbed the M25 gantries, which you probably do remember. According to JSO, their aim was “to sound the alarm about the government’s plan to licence over 100 new oil and gas projects against all expert advice.”

“Andrew has always looked to create change through his actions,” explains Andrew’s wife Melinda Rigby. “In the 1980s he wondered what he could do about the behaviour of the country with the biggest consumption of the earth’s resources, the US. He invented the smart meter for US electricity, water and gas consumption to help people use less. In 1990s he invented the three dimensional optical switch which allows us all now to have online meetings, his hope that people would stop flying as much. He has over sixty global patents and has recruited many technologists to train and mentor in bringing about sustainable change through technology.”

In 2024 Just Stop Oil successfully won its original demand of ‘no new oil and gas’ and on March 27 2025 announced an end to the campaign of action. But on 2 October 2025, after an eight day trial before Judge Perrins, Andrew and his five JSO colleagues were found guilty of intentionally or recklessly causing a public nuisance.

During the trial the Judge ruled out all legal defences, including the statutory defence of “reasonable excuse’, as well as the defences of necessity, Articles 10 and 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights, and implied consent.

“This is a court of law, not a court of morals,” Judge Perrins said in ruling out the defence of reasonable excuse. “Even if you took the view that each defendant genuinely believed that they were morally justified in acting in the way that they did, that does not provide them with a defence to the charge of public nuisance.”

The legislative basis for this rests on secondary legislation, whereby ministers can add what might be called executive orders to a previously passed Act without much or anything in the way of parliamentary scrutiny. This was performed by the then Home Secretary Suella Braverman in 2023 in respect of the Public Order Act. As a result, Open Democracy suggests, “Police in England can now basically stop any protest.”

The very idea of secondary legislation used in this way (the particular use of which dates back to the Blair government) causes many people profound unease. Many MPs must (or should) share this, wondering what role they’re expected to fulful in the legislative process. The galloping power of the executive seems unstoppable. Few have experienced this first-hand in the way Andrew Dames has.

On 5 December 2025, Andrew received a 26-month prison sentence for creating a public nuisance. See details of the sentencing here. In reponse to the sentence, Andrew said “we thank the jury, their hands were tied. Our government’s continued commitment to No New Oil, that we and the country asked for – that is all that matters.”

This was the first time Andrew had been sent to prison and he started at Wandsworth where he discovered for himself how bad conditions are there. See this Channel 4 report from a year ago about overcrowding, violence, rats, sewage water, lack of clean clothes, overflowing toilets in cells. At time of writing he has been transferred to Brixton Prison.

In the late 1990s, Andrew founded Sentec Ltd. that provided electronics and sensor technologies for water, gas and electricity markets. The company was eventually bought out by a much larger, and more conservative American company, while Andrew and Melinda set up and funded the Cambridge Retrofit Hub. All the while Andrew continues to invent sustainable technology.

This week Melinda told us that “Andrew is in the middle of developing a highly efficient electric motor however he has now lost his job due to the American owners’ fear of reputational damage. He did not expect this and it has rocked our family. But he will continue to do what he can. He will continue to invent for good.”

For the latest on the climate and nature crises see the website of the National Emergency Briefing, which took place in Westminster on 27 November 2025.

How you can help

The loss of Andrew’s job means they need help with funding Cambridge Retrofit Hub, their region’s community benefit society (not-for-profit) which they had committed to fund, their family having been co-founders.  The hub is run by passionate volunteer directors, and there is an essential base cost which needs to be covered.

22% of UK’s carbon emissions comes from poor quality housing which can be remedied by sustainable renovation.

In Ireland, this work is funded by a national carbon tax; by 2030 20% of Irish homes will have been sustainably renovated to an equivalent of an EPC A/B, whilst in the UK only 0.6% of homes will be sustainably renovated by 2030.  In other parts of the UK set up costs of similar hubs had been funded by EU grants so they are self-sustaining.

If you would like to help support Andrew & Melinda’s commitment to help fund Cambridge Retrofit Hub please follow the DONATE tab or write to hello@cambridgeretrofithub.org if you would like to make a monthly donation.

Photo: Andrew Dames, taken by Melinda Rigby.