Now anti-oil anarchists smash up petrol pumps
M-way services vandalised as climate militants step up attacks
ECO zealots staged early morning attacks on motorway service stations yesterday, smashing petrol pumps with hammers.
The vandalism marks a ‘significant escalation’ of protest tactics, according to Just Stop Oil – who have previously blockaded fuel terminals and oil tankers.
Critics accused the militants of ‘sabotaging people’s lives’ and holding the transport system hostage.
Around 35 activists struck at two sites at 7am yesterday on the M25 motorway around London.
They smashed display glass on the petrol pumps at Cobham Services in Surrey and Clacket Lane Services in Surrey. Then they covered the pumps in orange spraypaint after stopping motorists from entering the forecourts.
Activists glued themselves to the pumps, signs and the top of a lorry. More than 50 pumps were damaged, police said.
The group blocked the two forecourts for several hours, with the first arrests not taking place until after 11am.
Surrey Police said there were 35 arrests on suspicion of criminal damage and aggra
‘This action is totally irresponsible’
vated trespass. Justice Secretary Dominic Raab, the MP for Esher and Walton in Surrey, tweeted: ‘Thank you to the police for responding to this outrageous behaviour in Cobham. We will not allow militants to sabotage people’s lives.’
Sir Edmund King, the president of the AA, said: ‘It is totally irresponsible to take this kind of action. It is holding transport hostage.’
Among the saboteurs yesterday was Nathan McGovern, a 22-year-old student from Coventry who earlier this month attracted headlines when he glued his hand to a radio microphone while being interviewed live on LBC.
He declared: ‘I refuse to stand by and watch as heatwaves and drought murder people across the global south and families in the UK are forced to choose between eating and heating.
‘If politicians and bureaucrats refuse to act then it falls on ordinary people to do what they will not.’
Also among the protesters was Louis McKechnie, from Weymouth in Dorset, who disrupted a match between Everton and Newcastle in March by attaching his neck to a goalpost with a cable tie. He was jailed last year for breaching an injunction designed to stop protesters blocking the motorway.
The attacks are a challenge to Transport Secretary Grant Shapps who promised the Government would ‘stop at nothing’ to prevent such actions.
Surrey Police said it was called to the sites shortly after 7am. It said the pumps were switched off and motorists diverted away from the service stations. The forecourts were reopened several hours later after the protesters were removed in what police called ‘a lengthy and complex process’.
Significant damage was caused on both forecourts, with a total of 35 pumps damaged at Cobham, and 20 at Clacket Lane. The HGV pumps at both sites were not targeted.
Superintendent Graham Barnett said: ‘Around 40 officers were involved.
‘We appreciate that this [protest] caused considerable disruption to motorists attempting to use the services and to the petrol stations themselves, who will also have suffered a huge financial loss as a result of this activity. While we are required to facilitate peaceful protest, we will always take action against those who break the law and significantly impact on the lives and livelihoods of others.’
Just Stop Oil protests have been blamed for causing fuel shortages around the Midlands and the South East. The group is thought to be an offshoot of Insulate Britain, itself a splinter group of Extinction Rebellion.
Just Stop Oil has warned that it will ‘continue the disruption until the Government makes a statement that it will end new oil and gas projects in the UK’.