Activists blockade road to oil refinery

Sunday 17 October 2010
Hundreds of demonstrators blockaded the road to the Coryton oil refinery in Essex on Saturday preventing more than 50 oil tankers getting to and from the site.

The protesters, who barricaded the road leading to the refinery near Stanford-le-Hope, said they had stopped 375,000 gallons of fuel from leaving the depot, which they accuse of exacerbating climate change.

Police were forced to close the road after 12 female protesters handcuffed themselves to vehicles parked to deliberately block the way for fuel tankers.

Hundreds more demonstrators travelled from London to join the Crude Awakening protest and set up another blockade close to the entrance of the Shell Haven Oils Site on the same road.

A number of them clambered up man-made wooden tripods and many wore white boiler suits.

The demonstration, which was supported by a number of action groups including Camp for Climate Action and Plane Stupid, is part of a global week of action against the fossil fuel industry.

Activist Julie Allen said: "We've come here to the source of the problem, to put our bodies in the way of the relentless flow of oil to say: 'No more.'

"If we're to have a hope of tackling climate change we need to find a way to get over oil. It won't happen overnight, but we can and must move beyond oil."

Another demonstrator, Terri Orchard, said: "We don't have a hope of tackling climate change if we don't find a way to start moving beyond oil.

"Oil companies are devastating local environments, trampling the rights of local communities and pushing us over the edge to catastrophic climate change.

"We are here at the source of the problem at the UK's busiest oil refinery to stop the flow of oil to London.

"We're here to put a spanner in the works of the relentless flow of oil. This place, this whole industry, must become a thing of the past."

The protesters remained on the road for more than seven hours before they decided to leave, a spokeswoman for Crude Awakening said.

There were minor scuffles between officers and activists but Essex police described it as "a peaceful protest."

A spokesman said: "There have been no incidents during the protest and no arrests have been made."

see photos
http://london.indymedia.org/articles/5717

(Morning Star online)