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.”