THREE women from Kendal were arrested after they defied a High Court injunction by continuing to protest outside an oil terminal in a bid to ‘stop oil’.
Margaret Reid, Catherine Rennie-Nash and Gwen Harrison - who are supporters of campaign group Just Stop Oil - defied the injunction on Tuesday morning by protesting outside the Kingsbury Oil Terminal in Warwickshire.
At the time of writing, they have been arrested, along with 13 other people, on suspicion of obstructing the highway and are being held in Nuneaton police station.
Campaigners have been closing down oil terminals across the country by blocking roads, scaling tankers and trespassing on the sites, causing nationwide fuel shortages.
They are demanding that the UK Government immediately halts all future oil and gas projects.
“I feel like I’m in a scene from the movie ‘Don’t Look Up’ - the scientists are warning of an imminent and unspeakable catastrophe if governments don’t take urgent and radical action to stop it, and our Government and the mainstream media just put their fingers in their ears and look the other way while they jail people who are sounding the alarm,” said Ms Reid.
“It’s beyond criminal.”
A number of High Court injunctions have been issued in an attempt to deter protesters– breaching such an injunction carries a potential two-year prison sentence, seizure of assets, and unlimited fines.
The latest injunction, brought by North Warwickshire Borough Council, prohibits all forms of protest within five metres of the Kingsbury Oil Terminal.
Speaking before Tuesday’s action, Ms Harrison, 44, said: “I plan to stand on the pavement outside Kingsbury Oil Terminal with a placard. For this I could lose my house and spend two years in jail.
“This is the response of an authoritarian regime and it’s obscene. Our government is subsidising the fossil fuel industry to the tune of £236m each week and plans to open 40 new oil and gas fields – this is the very definition of insanity and is condemning our young people to a hellish future of war, famine and unimaginable suffering.
“The government would rather jail ordinary citizens for doing whatever they can to secure a liveable future than take the most basic and necessary step of committing to no new oil and gas projects. We just can’t let this happen. It’s time for every thinking, caring person to get over their fears and join us in resisting before it’s too late."
Ms Rennie-Nash, a retired teacher and grandmother in her 70s, said: “I’m absolutely terrified for my children and grandchildren. During Covid we saw fights erupting over loo roll shortages. I can hardly bear to imagine what’ll happen when there are global food shortages and the supermarket shelves become bare.
“This is how society begins to collapse, and it’s going to happen within my children’s lifetime.”
In a separate matter, Catherine Rennie-Nash and Gwen Harrison are to appear at Crawley Magistrates Court on April 29 charged with causing a public nuisance for blocking the port of Dover during the Insulate Britain actions last September.
Each intends to plead not guilty on the basis of necessity.
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