PROTESTORS accused Oxfordshire County Council of fiddling while fossil fuels burned at a demonstration in Oxford yesterday.

Campaigners from Fossil Free Oxfordshire called on the council to stop investing money through workers’ pension funds in fossil fuel companies such as Shell.

They stood outside County Hall as members of the county council’s pension fund arrived for work and one demonstrator played a fiddle, to highlight their anger at the investments.

Fossil Free Oxfordshire campaigner Al Chisolm said: “Fossil Free Oxfordshire has been campaigning to get the pension fund to move its investments in fossil fuels since 2013.

“Although the pension fund committee has indicated it is beginning to appreciate the dangers of fossil fuel investments, the pace of their action is no match for the urgency of the climate crisis.”

The Oxfordshire Pension Fund is administered by the county council but is not actually run by the authority.

The county council has previously stated it had no powers to invest on ethical grounds only.

Spokesman Paul Smith said: “All local authority pension funds have a legal duty to invest in the best financial interest of pension fund employers and beneficiaries.

“The county council does not own the pension fund assets and can’t impose its own social, environmental or ethical views when making investment decisions.”