Protesters cause disruption at fuel forecourts in South
OIL protesters are causing “sporadic” problems at forecourts in the Home Counties and south of England, where as many as a third of pumps have no fuel.
Although the situation has improved over the past week, FairFuel UK said that there were pockets in and around London, the south, Hampshire and South East, East Anglia, Essex and Kent where up to three out of 10 pumps have no fuel. Diesel is in the shortest supply. Across the South, more than a fifth of stations have no diesel, while this figure rises to almost a third in Greater London and Kent and just under a fifth of forecourts have the same problem with petrol.
The figures are based on 2,600 responses to a survey of Fair Fuel UK members and come as climate change protests continued for another day. Six people were arrested for vehicle inter
ference yesterday after Extinction Rebellion demonstrators climbed on to a Shell oil tanker in central London. The activists held a banner bearing the words “end fossil filth” and forced police to close Bayswater Road.
Olympic gold medal-winning canoeist Etienne Stott and sailing Olympian Laura Baldwin were among the demonstrators, Extinction Rebellion said.
Stott said: “I am acting to try to disrupt the toxic fossil fuel industry that is destroying everything we hold dear.”
On Friday, hundreds of activists blocked Waterloo, Blackfriars, Lambeth and Westminster bridges. Warwickshire Police also said it had charged nine people for holding a demonstration at an oil terminal in Kingsbury. Just Stop Oil activists protested in the early hours of Friday at the Kingsbury terminal near Tamworth, Staffs. Howard Cox, founder of FairFuel, said: “We predict sporadic fuel supply in the Home Counties and the South, for the next few weeks. [The Government] must up their game to ensure that the fuel supply chain is secure and well protected.”