Just Stop Oil start 'slow cycling' protests, with onlookers bemused as police steer eco-activists onto the pavement
9 June 2023, 16:45 | Updated: 9 June 2023, 16:51
Just Stop Oil have carried out their first "slow cycle" through a central London street, as the environmentalist group "evolve" their disruption tactics.
Listen to this article
Loading audio...
Just Stop Oil activists, who demand an end to all new fossil fuel projects, have held a string of "slow march" protests in recent months.
But the group said in a statement on Friday that nine of its protetsers began slow cycling down Park Lane in the West End.
"At the same time, another 2 groups of supporters began slow marching on the A2 at Blackheath and at Chiswick roundabout," they added.
Police soon arrived to deal with the disruption and issued the cyclists with a Section 12 order, which means they had to stay off the road or be arrested.
Listen and subscribe to Unprecedented: Inside Downing Street on Global Player
Just Stop Oil supporters slowly cycle on London streets to demand end to fossil fuels
Officers ushered the protesters onto the pavement, prompting confused onlookers to point out that cyclists are not allowed to ride there.
Responding to a Met police tweet confirming they had moved the protesters onto the pavement, one person said: "The same pavement where it's illegal to cycle by any chance?"
One Essex man flagged the issue to his local force, asking officers on Twitter: "Temember when you told me I’d be fined if caught cycling on the pavement in Wickford to avoid getting killed by lorries?
"I’m taking a leaf out of the Met’s book and using the pavement from now on.”
Explaining the new tactics, Just Stop Oil said: "This criminal government is quietly signing off on over 100 new oil and gas projects that will hasten climate collapse and destroy the conditions that make human life possible. It is an act of war against the young and millions of people in the global south.
"At the same time, they are enacting laws to ensure that no-one can stop them. They are restricting our legitimate rights to protest and to march in the road as people have done throughout history to express dissent. So, our tactics will continue to evolve.
"We are happy to show solidarity with cyclists everywhere and ask them to join us in civil resistance. Whether marching or cycling we will continue to do whatever is non-violently possible to end new oil and gas."
Other protests held by Just Stop Oil included an incident where a furious group of scaffolders took on slow marchers going through central London, with one activist slammed onto the bonnet of a van stuck in traffic.
Meanwhile, a woman who said she was on the way to hospital pleaded with the protestors to allow her to move through the march.
Just Stop Oil donor Dale Vince speaks to Nick Ferrari
Earlier in May protesters were thrown out of a Commons inquiry in Parliament looking into how protests were policed during King Charles's Coronation.
A small group of activists were removed from a Home Affairs Select Committee's meeting as they disrupted the hearing.Five had been arrested on the day of the Coronation, their group said.
Later, a frustrated man threw a Just Stop Oil protester onto the ground during a slow walk protest in central London.
There was also irritation as protesters threw orange paint over a garden at the Chelsea Flower Show, and disrupted the Gallagher Premiership rugby final at Twickenham by invading the pitch and throwing orange powder paint.
Two police officers quickly step in to stop the commuter in his tracks and handcuff him as the protestors remain on the road.
The police have warned the public not to intervene in the activists' demonstrations.
