Three Just Stop Oil Supporters have been found guilty of disrupting key roads within central London. 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. [1]
Alan Woods has been fined £900, inclusive of costs and court fees, whilst Fiona Prior and Paul Martin have both been fined £480 each, inclusive of costs and court fees. All three appeared before Judge Law at Westminster Magistrates Court yesterday, answering the charge of obstruction of the highway. Fiona Prior and Paul Martin in relation to peacefully blocking the road near Mansion House on the 27th October 2022, whilst Alan Woods appeared in relation to peacefully blocking Charing Cross Road near Leicester Square on the 29th October 2022. [2] [3]
All three Just Stop Oil supporters were forbidden from discussing their motivations for causing disruption, with no mention of the climate and cost of living crises permitted by the judge.
A Just Stop Oil spokesperson said:
“Once again, good people are being silenced from telling the whole truth in court. Recently, an Insulate Britain supporter was sentenced to eight weeks in prison for simply mentioning the climate crisis during their trial! If you were accused of any other crime you would be allowed to discuss your motivations.”
“Instead, some judges are choosing to criminalise good citizens, who are using the only options available to them to sound the alarm, whilst the corrupt political and corporate class are allowed to carry out morally reprehensible, and frankly murderous activity, unimpeded.” [4]
Alan Woods, 58, a company director from Wigan added:
“We were demanding that the UK government does not licence any further oil and gas projects. I’ve written to my MP, signed petitions, gone on marches and every time we are ignored. The government is progressing over 100 new licences for oil, gas and now, astonishingly in 2023, coal!”
“This is a death sentence for future generations and is affecting the world around us right now. The food shortages we are already seeing in supermarkets this past week, will be followed by widespread crop failures and mass migration within my lifetime. Civil resistance is all I have left.”
Paul Martin, 67, a furniture maker from Ambleside, said:
“We have the prospect of over 100 new oil and gas licences following COP26 and a new coal mine following COP27, both of which will increase carbon emissions by many millions of tonnes in the coming decades. These are not the actions of a government trying to protect the population. These are signs of insanity, and of a species intent on bringing about its own extinction.”
Fiona Prior, 60, a retired primary school teacher and grandmother from Carlisle, said:
“The government needs to start listening to its constituents and not big business. Over 100 new oil and gas licences granted in a climate emergency is not what we should be doing, for us, our children and our planet.”
“I will not stand by while our homes flood, continents burn and crops fail due to carbon being put into our atmosphere. The government must immediately act to protect the lives of the people they are supposed to serve.”
Since the Just Stop Oil campaign launched on the 14th February 2022, there have been over 2,000 arrests and 138 people have spent time in prison, many without trial. There are currently two Just Stop Oil supporters and one Insulate Britain supporter in prison whilst awaiting trial or serving sentences for actions taken with the campaigns.
We stand with these three supporters in prison, with the 1,800 victims of our broken criminal justice system, imprisoned for over a year without trial and with the 1,700 murdered across the global south, for protecting all our lives. [5] [6]
This is the moment for us to come together and resist the destruction of everything we love, something that is being imposed on us by a few, who only seek to enrich themselves.
We’re done with begging. We are going to stop new fossil fuel projects whether those in power agree or not. As citizens, parents and children, we have every right under British law to protect ourselves and those we love.
We are the last generation who can solve this. Will you step up? Join us and Just Stop Oil.
ENDS
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Notes to Editors
[1] Just Stop Oil is a coalition of groups working together to demand that the government immediately halt all future licensing and consents for the exploration, development and production of fossil fuels in the UK. Just Stop Oil is a member of the A22 Network of civil resistance projects. Climate Emergency Fund is Just Stop Oil’s primary funder for recruitment, training, and capacity building.
[2] Link to press release from 27th October 2022- https://juststopoil.org/2022/10/27/day-27-just-stop-oil-blocks-mansion-house-in-london/
[3] Link to press release from 29th October 2022- https://juststopoil.org/2022/10/29/day-29-just-stop-oil-supporters-stop-traffic-in-central-south-and-west-london/
[4] Link to Guardian article from Feb 7th- https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/feb/07/insulate-britain-activist-david-nixon-jailed-for-eight-weeks-for-contempt-of-court
[5] Fair Trials reports that the number of people being held in prison without trial in England and Wales is at its highest for over 50 years.
[6] A recent report from Global Witness says that more than 1,700 people have died while trying to prevent mining, oil drilling or logging on their lands.
