Insulate Britain says 117 supporters have been charged over road block protests after 857 arrests

Climate activists say they expect numbers to rise

Climate group Insulate Britain has said 117 activists have been charged over road-blocking protests last year.

Activists brought major roads - mostly in southern England - to a standstill during protests between September and November, which were aimed at drawing attention to the UK’s poorly heated homes.

The Metropolitan Police, Kent Police and Essex Police have each issued charges in recent weeks.

They include 146 charges of causing a public nuisance, 137 of wilful obstruction of the highway, and 10 of criminal damage.

Insulate Britain said it is "likely these numbers will rise as we understand that further charges are still being issued".

Police officers monitor environmental activists from the group Insulate Britain blocking a street at Parliament Square (AFP via Getty Images)

At least 25 plea hearings are scheduled to take place at magistrates’ courts in Crawley, Chelmsford and Stratford in April and May.

Some 174 people were arrested a total of 857 times during the protests.

Insulate Britain said some who repeatedly returned to the roads were arrested "10 to 15 times during 18 days of roadblocks".

Prior to the wave of charges, activists had only faced civil action.

Fourteen were jailed for breaking injunctions banning protests on the M25.

Insulate Britain said public nuisance prosecutions can result in a maximum sentence of up to five years in prison and an unlimited fine.

Cameron Ford, 31, a carpenter from Cambridge who is summoned to appear at Crawley Magistrates’ Court on 4 April, said: "The CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) undertaking these mass prosecutions is an attempt by our government to ignore and avoid addressing the biggest dangers facing people right now.

"By not insulating Britain’s leaky homes they are knowingly condemning millions more families to live in fuel poverty and thousands and thousands of our elderly to die in frozen homes next winter."

Nick Till, 66, a university professor from London who is due to appear at the same court on 6 April, said: "As an academic, my duty is to find and tell the truth, and civil disobedience is now the only way of getting the truth out there.

“I do not regret my actions. Even though I regret the inconvenience caused to many of my fellow citizens by my actions it is nothing compared to what is coming down the line for those same people and their loved ones if we fail to do anything.”

Insulate Britain protesters occupying a roundabout leading from the M25 (PA )

In a statement published on its website, Insulate Britain said: “Insulate Britain’s demand that the government takes responsibility for and fully funds a nationwide programme of home insulation and retrofitting, starting with social housing by 2025, has been widely recognised by experts and the general public alike to be the most efficient and cost-effective means of reducing energy dependency and fuel poverty.

“This has been brought home with even greater urgency by the current energy price hikes, which are plunging millions of British families into absolute poverty, and by the oil-fuelled war in Ukraine.”

It added: “Britain needs to end its dependency on oil by insulating homes and investing in renewables. The OECD estimates that our government subsidises oil exploration,  research and development to the tune of £10 billion a year.

“This is unacceptable. The government must halt all future fossil fuel licences and subsidies immediately to give humanity a chance of survival.”

Insulate Britain began its protests in September last year, which included the blocking of roads near parliament, as well as highways in Birmingham, Manchester and Dover in Kent.

The demonstrators continued to block roads after the High Court granted injunctions against them to National Highways and Transport for London to stop the disruption.

Insulate Britain’s tactics proved controversial and the group lost some public support in 2021 when a woman begged activists to let her past so she could visit her 81-year-old mother in hospital.