Just Stop Oil protesters arrested after blockading M25 petrol stations and damaging pumps

Cobham, Clacket Lane and Thurrock services affected as group demands end of new oil and gas projects

Over 30 people have been arrested after activists from protest group Just Stop Oil blockaded at least three petrol stations on the M25 early on Wednesday morning.

The protesters glued themselves to petrol station forecourts, locked themselves onto pumps and broke petrol pump glass, with the disruption affecting Cobham Services in Surrey, Clacket Lane Services (East and Westbound) in Kent, and Thurrock Services in Essex.

By the morning rush hour, the groups of activists were blocking access to the petrol stations by sitting on the road with banners.

In a statement on its website, Just Stop Oil said: "Today’s actions will put further pressure on petrol and diesel supplies for the south-east ahead of the August Bank Holiday weekend."

The group has already impacted fuel supplies after action on Tuesday saw petrol and diesel supplies stopped from leaving the Navigator and Grays depots in Essex and also from the Kingsbury depot in Warwickshire.

The group has dug a series of tunnels under access roads to the depots, which are now occupied by protesters. This has resulted in some road closures and further supply disruption.

Just Stop Oil said it "will continue the disruption until the government makes a statement that it will end new oil and gas projects in the UK".

The action on Wednesday comes after 35 Just Stop Oil activists were arrested on Tuesday.

On Twitter, Surrey police said: "We appreciate the disruption this is causing and we are working as quickly as we can to remove the protesters from the service stations.

"Officers remain at the scene and a total of nine people have been arrested on [suspicion] of criminal damage."

One of the activists, Joy Corrigan 73, a grandmother of three, explained why she was protesting on Wednesday. She said: “I am sick with worry about how today’s children will survive. Every day I see more and more examples of climate change and the frequency is accelerating. Government get your bloody finger out. We need action today not tomorrow.”

Adam, 53, a gardener from Gloucestershire said: “In 20 years’ time when my grandchildren point out that we knew about the destruction and suffering that the climate crisis would bring, I don’t want to have to tell them that I just sat at home and worried about it. I want to be able to tell them I did what I could.

"We need to take this action because the government is not doing its duty to protect us from climate catastrophe, instead continuing to allow extraction of new fossil fuels.”