Councillor in jail after oil protest

A Scarborough councillor has been sent to jail for a second time after breaching a court injunction to take part in a climate change protest.

More than 50 Just Stop Oil protesters, including Theresa Norton, from Scarborough, were sent to jail last week after refusing to comply with a court order preventing them from blockading an oil terminal in Warwickshire.

The campaigners are demanding urgent action to address climate change – including halting the expansion and use of fossil fuels in the UK.

In a statement, Cllr Norton said: “We are in the midst of a climate and ecological emergency, as declared by Parliament in 2019.

“We have, as a nation, endured more than a decade of austerity … and two years of a global pandemic.

“Now we are to be punished again through extortionate energy bills and the rising cost of living.”

Cllr Norton, of Esplanade Gardens, was arrested and charged with wilfully obstructing a highway with a non-motor vehicle in May last year after staging a climate change protest by sitting in the road on St Nicholas Street in Scarborough.

In February, she was jailed for defying a court order preventing Insulate Britain campaigners protesting on the M25. The Labour councillor, who represents Eastfield, was arrested four times in eight days in September 2021 after joining demonstrations on the motorway.

Scarborough’s Labour Group has previously decided not to remove the whip and expel her from the party, despite calls for her to go from opposing parties.