Just Stop Oil protesters are closing three lanes of the M25 causing a nine-mile congestion and adding an extra HOUR to the journey as they tell drivers to avoid the ring road ALL WEEK and say it’s ‘a place of civil resistance”.
- Just Stop Oil said the highway was “a place of civil resistance.”
- Group has asked that “no one drives on the Autobahn from Wednesday to Friday”
- Around nine miles of traffic has built up counterclockwise along the M25 in Surrey
- The UK-initiated demonstration recorded its hottest day on record on Tuesday
Just Stop Oil protesters have closed three lanes of the M25, adding an hour to the journey time, as they tell motorists to avoid the motorway this week.
Around nine miles of traffic has built up along the M25 between Cobham and Guildford after activists began their protest just after 8am, causing delays stretching as far as Heathrow Airport.
In a statement released today, Just Stop Oil said it was “declaring the M25 a site of civilian resistance” and called for “no one to drive on this motorway Wednesday to Friday this week as we will be blocking the motorway”.
It added: “We fully recognize the cost and disruption this will cause to the public and urge them to direct their claims for compensation to the government that has caused this unprecedented threat to our lives and liberties. “
And at the scene today, two of the protesters said: “We are currently on scaffolding over the M25. It’s very noisy up here and very windy. We’ve hung a tightly tied banner over the edge that says Just Stop Oil because that’s what our government needs to do.
“It must stop new oil and gas licenses in the North Sea. We are risking our civil liberties being up here, we don’t want to be up here but we believe it is what we must do.’
Two protesters on the M25 this morning said they scaled scaffolding and “threw a banner over the edge”.
A Just Stop Oil banner hanging anti-clockwise above the M25 during the protest this morning in Surrey
Highways England tweeted: “3 lanes (out of 4) are now closed on the M25 anti-clockwise in Surrey within the J10 (A3 for Guildford) due to an ongoing Surrey Police incident.
“This incident is likely to continue for some time. There is now over a 60 minute delay on approach with a 9 mile congestion.’
The latest demonstrations came after a heatwave that saw Britain record its hottest day on record on Tuesday.
Temperatures hit an unprecedented 40.3C (104.54) yesterday in Coningsby, Lincolnshire, beating records.
