M-way eco mob blocks up Dover
40 activists target supply chain after M25 stunts
INSULATE Britain fanatics blocked roads at the Port of Dover yesterday in a ‘cynical’ attempt to intensify the supply chain crisis.
The eco-zealots, many of whom have been arrested in recent days for blocking the M25, targeted Dover to ‘push their message back up the agenda’.
They admitted they had chosen the location because of its strategic importance to the UK.
The 40-strong mob – who likened their antics to winston Churchill’s stand against the Nazis – halted traffic at 8am as they set up three roadblocks and glued themselves to oil tankers.
The High Court last night granted National Highways an interim injunction preventing protesters from occupying the A20 and strategic roads linked to the Port of Dover.
Those who breach the injunction will be in contempt of court and at risk of imprisonment and an unlimited fine.
Yesterday, 14 activists blockading the road to the western Docks boasted they had been arrested 40 times in two weeks after stunts on the M25.
One protester climbed on to a tanker with a sign saying: ‘Arrested four times because I am mourning for life on Earth.’ This vehicle blocked a lane of the A20 for hours. Kent Police arrested 39 activists but locals criticised the force’s slow response, amid claims officers took 75 minutes to remove one group of protesters.
Parents taking children to school, as well as NHS staff, insulation fitters and hauliers were caught in the gridlock.
Many tried futile tactics from coaxing to screaming to get the protesters to leave.
Caroline Broad, a nurse from Deal in Kent, got out of her car to remonstrate with activists, saying those affected were ‘the backbone of this country’.
The 64-year-old told the Mail: ‘They are stopping lawabiding citizens going to work, and making a contribution to this country, all for their own self-aggrandisement.’
A previous interim injunction granted by the High Court barred protesters only from the M25. After they switched to Dover, officials took steps to secure an injunction for the port, risking a farcical game of cat-and-mouse.
It is understood officials now plan to ban them from all major roads.
Last night Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said: ‘we are absolutely committed to protecting the right to peaceful protest, but it is unacceptable that people cannot go about their day-to-day business... because of the reckless actions of a few protesters.’
Home Secretary Priti Patel said: ‘The British public are rightly furious that the behaviours of a selfish minority have been putting lives at risk and causing untold disruption on our roads and now at Dover.’
A spokesman for Insulate Britain said it held the protest as ‘fuel poverty is killing people in Dover and across the UK’. He added: ‘we must tell the truth about the urgent horror of the climate emergency.’
Chief Superintendent Simon Thompson, of Kent Police, said there would be ‘consequences’ for law-breakers.