A Just Stop Oil demonstration involving more than 160 protesters has caused major traffic disruption across London’s West End.
Protesters blocked traffic at seven locations across the West End, Westminster and South London on Monday morning.
Some formed a line, holding banners as they slowly walked down Haymarket, a major thoroughfare which runs between Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square and plays host to a number of theatres, hotels and restaurants.
Traffic was also backed up along the Strand, Kennington Lane and Waterloo Bridge.
“Officers are on scene and we’ll aim to get traffic moving again freely as soon as it is safe to do so,” Metropolitan Police said in a statement.
Buses, lorries and commuters have been forced into a gridlock snaking behind the protesters as they chant, hold placards and walk slowly in a line.
The rally is “in solidarity with the UK’s political prisoners”, including those “wrongly imprisoned for resisting the Government’s genocidal plans to licence over 100 new oil and gas projects by 2025”, Just Stop Oil said in a statement.
The group warned: “At 1pm today, hundreds more will set off from Parliament Square, marching to the Shell building with supporters of Extinction Rebellion and other groups to demand an end to the fossil fuel era.”
Just Stop Oil said marches have been planned for “every Saturday” at Parliament Square from 12pm.
Avoid Haymarket in Central London this morning #JustStopOil #Protest #Gridlock pic.twitter.com/wQ8sIXy9kc
— Danbm (@dan_afc) April 24, 2023
The protest comes just days after two Just Stop Oil protesters who scaled Queen Elizabeth II Bridge at Dartford Crossing were sentenced.
Morgan Trowland, 40, and Marcus Decker, 34, were sentenced at Southend Crown Court to three years in prison, and two years and seven months in prison respectively, for causing a public nuisance.
The pair used ropes and other climbing equipment to shuffle up the cables of the bridge in October last year, causing major traffic disruption.
They ascended to a point close to 200ft above the road and unfurled a giant Just Stop Oil banner and “rigged up hammocks and stayed there”, prosecutors said during their trial.
The Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links the M25 in Essex and Kent, was closed from 4am on October 17 to 9pm the following day.
In response to their sentencing Home Secretary Suella Braverman said: “These selfish protesters caused families to miss funerals, cost businesses money, disrupted emergency services and brought chaos to the law-abiding public.
“I welcome the court’s verdict. Others considering similar stunts should take note.”
Just Stop Oil claimed that Trowland and Decker were “given draconian custodial sentences”.
“The Just Stop Oil supporters were demanding that the Government halt licensing and consents for the development of any new fossil-fuel projects in the UK,” the group said last week.
Speaking outside the courtroom spokesperson Stephanie Golder said:“What Morgan and Marcus did was extraordinary, risky and extremely disruptive.”
