No10 slams eco ‘guerrillas’ as more petrol stations shut

DOWNING Street said yesterday it will not tolerate guerrilla tactics by eco campaigners in the “exceptionally dangerous” fuel protests as more petrol forecourts ran dry.

Environmental activists from Just Stop Oil have hampered access to oil terminals this month, demanding the Government halts new fossil fuel projects.

Drivers took to social media to complain of long queues outside forecourts when panicked drivers filled their tanks as the school Easter holidays began.

A No 10 spokeswoman said: “We recognise the strength of feeling, and the right to protest is a cornerstone of our democracy, but we won’t tolerate guerrilla tactics that obstruct people going about their day-to-day business.”

She added: “We fully support the police who are putting significant resource into their response to the demonstrations.”

Police in Essex have arrested hundreds of protesters since the disruptions started on April 1 but Just Stop Oil said yesterday that some activists were still locked on to pipework at a terminal in Grays.

A number of people were also occupying a tunnel under a major access route to the Kingsbury terminal in Warwickshire.

The protests, along with similar action at other sites, have been blamed for fuel shortages. Petrol

stations in Kent started to run dry at the weekend – then those with fuel were quickly emptied by panic-buying drivers.

The majority of filling stations in Cambridgeshire were either closed or had long queues on Sunday.

In a statement yesterday, Just Stop Oil said: “Over 400 people have joined actions that have succeeded in stopping operations

for up to 24 hours at a time at 11 critical oil terminals that supply fuel to hundreds of petrol stations across the Midlands and South of England.

“As many as one in three petrol stations are being reported as shut in the South.

“This is miserable and our hearts go out to all those who are disrupted. No one wants to be

doing this, but it’s 2022 and there is a need to break the law so we are not guilty of greater crime, that of complicity with a great evil.”

Environment Secretary George Eustice argued that “extreme protests” are not needed as ending the world’s dependence on fossil fuels was already part of the “mainstream agenda”.

He added: “A right to protest is

important but not if it’s disrupting lives.

“They are not just making a point and staging a protest, they are also trying to cause havoc with other people’s lives.That’s wrong.”

He stressed new laws were being brought in to target such protests, for example where people take extreme actions such as glueing themselves to motorways.