Rochdale activist arrested after scaling M25 gantry in support of Just Stop Oil

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A Rochdale activist is one of many Just Stop Oil supporters who has been arrested after climbing onto motorway gantries around the M25 as part of their campaign to demand that the government halts all new oil and gas licences and consents.

Despite being both visually impaired and scared of heights, Jane Touil, 56, was one of 15 supporters to take to the gantries in protest on Tuesday (8 November), causing police to halt traffic. 

Around 15 Just Stop Oil supporters climbed onto the overhead gantries of the M25 in at least 12 locations on both Monday and Tuesday, causing police to close large sections of the motorway. A further 10 are understood to have climbed gantries today (Wednesday 9 November).

Jane was arrested on Tuesday and taken to Westminster Magistrates Court on Wednesday, where she will hear whether or not she will be jailed. She gave up her public sector job in August to devote herself to the Just Stop Oil campaign and has been arrested multiple times.

 

Read more: Three Rochdale residents arrested in Just Stop Oil blockade of Essex oil deptPublished: 26 August 2022

 

Jane said: “Climate breakdown is causing death and destruction around the world NOW and it’s getting worse very quickly. Thousands died in the UK due to the 40-degree heat this summer. Millions are starving in Somalia and 33 million people have been displaced by floods in Pakistan. It breaks my heart. And this is just the beginning.

“Oil, gas and coal are driving climate breakdown. We have clean, green alternative energy that would be cheaper than oil and gas, would reduce energy bills and wouldn’t wreck the planet, but the government is green lighting over 100 new oil and gas projects. This is a death sentence for millions of people and goes against all scientific advice. 

“I feel morally compelled to act. I cannot stand by while the government knowingly pursues genocidal policies. There can be no new oil and gas if we want a liveable future. Licensing new oil and gas amounts to mass murder. I urge everyone who wants a liveable climate to support Just Stop Oil.”

Campaigners first took to the M25 on Monday 7 November at 7.30am, after Just Stop Oil contacted the Metropolitan Police and National Highways Ltd to advise them that there would major disruption on the M25, asking them to implement a 30mph speed limit, in line with their responsibilities to keep the public safe.

This week’s actions follow a month of daily disruption and civil resistance by supporters of Just Stop Oil during which the police made over arrests, including 16 on Tuesday. Since the campaign began on 1 April, Just Stop Oil supporters have been arrested over 2,000 times, with 16 supporters currently in prison.

 

 

The gantry climbing actions come after the government failed to respond to Just Stop Oil’s ultimatum - that the government reverses its plans to licence more than 130 new oil and gas projects or the campaign of disruption would be escalated. 

It also comes as world leaders met at COP27 - the international climate talks in Egypt - where the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, warned them: “We are on a highway to climate hell with our foot on the accelerator.

“Our planet is fast approaching tipping points that will make climate chaos irreversible. We need urgent climate action.”

A spokesperson for Just Stop Oil added: “What did you expect? This government is complicit in an illegal and unconstitutional plan to issue more licences and consents for new oil and gas. A plan that will take the world over 1.5°C, resulting in the collapse of ordered society, the loss of our rights and freedoms and the death of millions of people.

“Our latest Prime Minister Rishi Sunak talks of the importance of ending our dependence on fossil fuels yet he is still planning to allow new fossil fuel projects. This is a failure of politics. People have the legal right under British law to cause disruption to prevent a greater harm: the right of necessity. We do not do this lightly.

“After thirty years of public debate, lobbying and petitioning, and three years of peaceful civil disobedience, we are still on course for catastrophic climate breakdown and we have nowhere else to go. The government is doubling down on fossil fuels, indicating ever greater levels of criminality.

“In the face of this reality, disruptive civil resistance is now inevitable and justified. It will continue until the UK government changes course. We are serious; we have never been more serious. Our families, communities, our country and civilisation are on the cliff edge of destruction.

“We will not die silently and neither will the people, like you, your friends, neighbours and colleagues who know what has to be done.”