Tuesday 8 November 2022
Six charged and five more arrested in Surrey following second morning of M25 disruption
Five further arrests have been made in Surrey today
following a second morning of disruption on the M25.
From 7:30am onwards Surrey officers responded to
reports of activists at multiple locations along the Surrey stretch.
With
support from National Highways, traffic was stopped whilst specialist police
officers trained to work at height, scaled the gantries and by 10:30am all had
been removed and arrested.
Six other people who were arrested on the motorway yesterday
have since been charged and are due in court today.
Superintendent Graham Barnett, from Surrey and Sussex
Operations Command, said: “Make no mistake, what we are seeing this week is not
peaceful protest, it is large-scale, co-ordinated, criminality disrupting the
lives of thousands of people trying to go about their daily business.
“Our main concern continues to be the safety of other road
users as well as protecting our officers who are climbing gantries to remove
them and get the roads running again. This kind of dangerous activity puts
the public at risk, it puts police officers at risk, and it diverts our
resources away from tackling other crime in our communities.
“Charges have been brought against those arrested yesterday
and we will continue to work with the Crown Prosecution Service to seek charges
for those committing offences today.
“Alongside our colleagues in other forces we are conducting
proactive patrols and acting fast on intelligence we receive about these
activists. This has resulted in some pre-emptive arrests, and we will continue
to do this. However, it is neither feasible nor sustainable for us to
continually police hundreds of gantries around the M25.”
posted by Radio Jackie News Team @ 2:49 pm