A Just Stop Oil activist is at risk of losing her job as parish council clerk after she disrupted the Chelsea Flower Show by throwing orange powder over a garden.
Naomi Goddard, 58, was one of the three activists hosed down by an irate visitor after they threw orange ‘biodegradable cornstarch’ over the flowers and hard landscaping of the RBC Brewin Dolphin garden.
The retired landscape architect and Wadsworth parish council clerk has previously been arrested multiple times for protesting.
She was heard shouting: ‘Humanity is failing. Everything that you hold dear is in peril.
‘The flower gardens that you treasure. The buildings that you adore. Our traditions. What is the point of a garden if you can’t feed yourself?’
A source at the parish council told The Telegraph her protest may put her job at risk, saying: ‘I’d be surprised if anyone on the council supports her actions. She took pre-booked annual leave to go to London. When she returns, we will follow due process.’
Naomi Goddard, 58, has reportedly put her job as a Wadsworth parish council clerk at risk for her protest at Chelsea Flower Show
The clerk (left) connected her protest with the flooding of her hometown of Hebden Bridge in recent years
Another insider told the newspaper : ‘If you know what kind of place Hebden Bridge is, then you’ll know what people think of this sort of thing.’
Speaking after the flower show protest, Goddard admitted she was risking losing her job because of her protesting.
She connected her protest with the flooding of her hometown of Hebden Bridge in recent years, claiming it has ‘flooded on five occasions over the last eight years. Soiled sewage-stuffed flood water, pouring into folks’ properties, school rooms, and places of work and destroying rigorously tended gardens’.
However, she did not mention that the area has experienced repeated flooding for centuries.
Gareth Wilson, its award-winning designer, said: ‘These people are absolute morons who have failed to do their homework.
‘The Royal Horticultural Society is massively – probably more than any other organisation of its kind – moving heaven and earth to push for sustainability. It just won’t accept your design if it is not sustainable.
‘If they were doing this protest outside an oil refinery or a company that was using oil or polluting the atmosphere, or pouring oil into rivers I would have a little bit of sympathy.
‘But these morons have come into a sustainable showground. They are working against their own cause.’
Mr Wilson said the mainly recyclable display had been permanently damaged by the orange ‘biodegradable cornstarch’.
Goddard was joined by Stephanie Golder, 35, and Rosa Hicks, 28, who also threw orange powder from their handbags across the flowers.
Hosed down: A visitor at the Chelsea Flower Show gives the eco-zealots a shower after they invade a sustainable garden. 1 – The flood expert : A landscape architect from Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, 58-year-old Naomi Goddard. 2 – The serial activist : Stephanie Golder, a 35-year-old charity project co-ordinator from Southend 3 – The psychologist : Rosa Hicks, a 28-year-old disability support worker from London who appears to have got into protesting on her gap year to Australia
Stephanie Golder works for the Alexandra Rose Charity and ironically claims to ‘spend as much time as possible in her garden growing food and flowers’
Chelsea protester Rosa Hicks describes herself as an Extinction Rebellion activist on her LinkedIn
Activist Stephanie Golder is a serial offender who rather claims to ‘spend as much time as possible in her garden growing food and flowers’ despite badly damaging those at the flower show.
The third and youngest protester was Rosa Hicks, recently graduated from the University of Manchester with a degree in psychology – after taking a year out to fly to Australia to study abroad.
She describes herself as passionate about social justice and was previously an activist for Extinction Rebellion.
According to her LinkedIn profile she has been involved with efforts to help refugees with ‘therapeutic gardening’.
Charity worker Golder was arrested last April for shutting down two M25 service stations.
At the time, the activist bemoaned that she was ‘sick and tired of being treated like a criminal’ – just as her friend was smashing petrol pumps.
She works for the Alexandra Rose Charity and, rather ironically, claims to ‘spend as much time as possible in her garden growing food and flowers’.
She said previously: ‘I’m sick and tired of being treated like a criminal for standing up for what is right.
‘The real criminals are those refusing to act on the climate emergency, it’s truly genocidal for our government to give new licences for oil exploration.
‘The poorest in this country need help with their energy bills now. But instead the government’s energy strategy fails to mention energy saving measures such as insulation and instead prioritises a ”plan” which puts us on a fast-track for climate chaos.’
