Defiant Just Stop Oil Protesters Disrupt M25 Traffic Again Saying ‘Expect Us Every Day’

Published on: 8 Nov, 2022
Updated on: 8 Nov, 2022

Traffic brought to a halt by the protests on the M25 Image Just Stop Oil

By Martin Giles

Just Stop Oil protesters climbed onto motorway gantries around the M25 again today as part of their campaign to demand that the government halts all new oil and gas licences.

Surrey Police say six were charged and five more arrested in Surrey following second morning of M25 disruption. According to Just Stop Oil, approximately 15 of their supporters climbed onto the overhead gantries of the M25 in multiple locations causing police to halt traffic.

Surrey police officers responded quickly to reports of activists at multiple locations along the Surrey stretch at 7.30 am. Traffic was stopped whilst specialist police officers, trained to work at height, scaled the gantries and by 10.30am all had been removed and arrested. The police were supported by National Highways.

Six other people who were arrested on the motorway yesterday have since been charged and are due in court today. None gave police Surrey addresses; one came from Cornwall and another from Cumbria.

Superintendent Graham Barnett, from Surrey and Sussex Operations Command, said: “Make no mistake, what we are seeing this week is not peaceful protest, it is large-scale, co-ordinated, criminality disrupting the lives of thousands of people trying to go about their daily business.

“Our main concern continues to be the safety of other road users as well as protecting our officers who are climbing gantries to remove them and get the roads running again. This kind of dangerous activity puts the public at risk, it puts police officers at risk, and it diverts our resources away from tackling other crime in our communities.

“Charges have been brought against those arrested yesterday and we will continue to work with the Crown Prosecution Service to seek charges for those committing offences today.

“Alongside our colleagues in other forces we are conducting proactive patrols and acting fast on intelligence we receive about these activists. This has resulted in some pre-emptive arrests, and we will continue to do this. However, it is neither feasible nor sustainable for us to continually police hundreds of gantries around the M25.”

A protestor on one of the M25 gantries

Arrested today were two men aged, 60 and 68, and three women aged 19, 31 and 56.

Just Stop Oil said that since it began staging protests in April, 2,000 arrests have been made and five are still in prison.

A spokesperson for Just Stop Oil said: “This is not a one-day event, expect us every day and anywhere. This is an act of resistance against a criminal government and their genocidal death project. Our supporters will be returning – today, tomorrow and the next day – and the next day after that – and every day until our demand is met: no new oil and gas in the UK.

“We will not be intimidated by changes to the law, we will not be stopped by private injunctions sought to silence peaceful people. Our supporters understand that these are irrelevant when set against mass starvation, slaughter, the loss of our rights, freedoms and communities.”