25 supporters of Just Stop Oil have stopped traffic on the A4 Cromwell Road at the junction with Exhibition Road, in central London. They are demanding that the government halts all new oil and gas licences and consents.
At 9:40am today, Just Stop Oil supporters walked onto Cromwell Road, near Exhibition Road and disrupted traffic by sitting in the road with banners. Some supporters glued onto the tarmac and others used lock ons.
Sheila Shatford, 67, a former nurse and grandmother from Bristol said:
“We are so short of time now that non violent civil disobedience seems the only option. It’s hard to be ridiculed and reviled by people when I’m sitting on a road but I know that I have to do it. This isn’t for me, this is for those without a voice and future generations. It would certainly be a lot easier to go back to my own cosy little life. Activism isn’t for the faint hearted. But I just have to look at the scientific evidence and know that I could not live with myself if I did nothing. “
Mathew, 52, a civil engineer from Bristol said
“I am out of my comfort zone taking this action. It terrifies me. But climate change and its consequences are far more terrifying. I can no longer live with the government’s decisions on licensing new oil and gas projects. We have to take a stand. “
Sophy Allen, 47, a mother and government advisor from Totnes said:
“This failing government no longer serves the public. Opening up new oil and gas projects is a direct threat to all our lives. Ordinary people are in nonviolent civil resistance against plans and policies that condemn us to generations of suffering. We accept that our actions are disruptive. Civil resistance is the only rational response to a government that is doubling down on more fossil fuels, more air pollution, more drought, more flooding, more crop failure, more war and more death.
The action follows the end of the Dartford Crossing occupation by two Just Stop Oil supporters who had spent a total of 37 hours at height after they climbed the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge. They were brought down on cherry-picker and arrested. Morgan and Marcus issued the following statement:
“We successfully disrupted oil supplies to Kent and the South East for 36 hours and we are stepping down now but other supporters of Just Stop Oil will continue to step up day after day to take action, risk arrest and put their liberty on the line to demand that the government ends new oil and gas.”
On Tuesday, 26 protesters were arrested following a similar protest in Hammersmith, London.
A spokesperson for the Met Police said:
“The protesters were on Talgarth Road from about 07:45hrs. Some were sitting in the road, whilst others either glued themselves to the road or locked on to each other.
“Police were rapidly on scene. Specialist officers attended and unglued those who had stuck themselves to the road or each other.
“All were arrested on suspicion of wilful obstruction of the highway and taken into custody at a south London police station.
“Police had reopened the road in both directions by about 09:30hrs.”
