There will be up to 900 extra Metropolitan Police officers on the streets of London this weekend to handle renewed Just Stop Oil demonstrations. The group staged 32 days of disruption from the end of September to October with the Met confirming 677 arrests and 111 people charged. Officers worked a total of 9,438 extra shifts.
Just Stop Oil campaigners halted their activities earlier this week and said they would give the Government until Friday evening to respond to their request to stop investing in new oil and gas. They are expected to now implement road-blocking demonstrations on Saturday.
Speaking outside Scotland Yard on Friday, Met Commander Jon Savell urged the public to "bear with" police tackling any unlawful protests and ensured "up to 900" extra officers deployed in London this weekend.
He told the PA news agency: "We will have hundreds of extra officers on duty this weekend in and around the areas where we believe that they will be, and we will be responding to them as and when they appear. We will help facilitate them protesting lawfully, but where they cross the boundaries we will act quickly."
He added: "There will inevitably be protests in the roads and some of the more iconic places. We will work quickly to try and minimise that disruption, and we would just ask the public to bear with us.
"But if there are issues, be reassured that we have hundreds of extra officers on duty, we will be there, and we will take action where it's needed."
Asked about the impact of the protests on the Met's capacity to police serious and violent crime, Mr Savell ensured the force would be "able to manage" and that community policing would "continue at the levels we would expect to deliver".
"It does take up a lot of resources, not only for us but for the lawyers and the court systems," he said. "That is time and resources that could be better used in tackling community crime, robberies and violence that is a priority for us, but we are here to deal with anything that is unlawful and the public can rely on us."
Members of the People's Assembly, part of the Unison trade union will also be staging a "Britain Is Broken" demonstration at Embankment in central London at noon on Saturday. The Met said officers will also be policing events like this to ensure protests are lawful.
The protests were due to coincide with a series of planned rail strikes organised by the RMT union, but they were called off at the 11th hour. Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) had been due to stage 24-hour walkouts on Saturday and next Monday and Wednesday.
The RMT said it has secured “unconditional” talks on Network Rail and the promise of a pay offer from the train operating companies.
