Just Stop Oil activists block roads leading to Vauxhall Bridge in London

Environmental activists from Just Stop Oil today blocked two roads leading to Vauxhall Bridge as they caused chaos in London for the seventh day running.

About 25 protesters in several groups blocked routes north and south of the bridge as they sat down with banners and stuck to the roads.

It follows protests in the capital every day since Saturday, which have seen Just Stop Oil block roads around Parliament Square, Waterloo Bridge and Trafalgar Square.

Today’s sit-down during the week of action in Westminster began around 10.30 as they continue to demand that the government stop new oil and gas projects.

The group confirmed that today’s action ‘puts an end to the first week of continuous disruption’ – but that ‘the coming weeks will see the disruption in the capital increase’.

Scotland Yard has given daily totals of Just Stop Oil arrests during this week – with 32 yesterday on suspicion of willful obstruction of the motorway.

The Metropolitan Police Events Twitter feed also said there were 28 on Wednesday, 54 on Tuesday and 29 on Sunday – bringing the total for the week to 143, before today.

Just Stop Oil announced the latest protest in a press release today, which quoted Grace lally, 43, a mother-of-two and childcare worker from Hastings, East Sussex.

She said: ‘We’re not just facing climate collapse – as more parts of the world become uninhabitable through fires, droughts and floods, and more harvests fail, we’re actually facing societal collapse.

‘When we really confront this reality, how are we expected to carry on with life as normal? We all know the science and the facts, so our leaders who do nothing to move away from fossil fuels are either fools or psychopaths.

‘Anyway, I’m not prepared to let them lead us over a cliff without a fight. We are non-violent, but we must use every means in our power – protests, strikes, occupations – to try to stop fossil fuel companies and their political defenders from destroying everything we love.’

And Phil Snider, 37, a delivery driver from Southampton, said: ‘I’m taking action because I looked at the science, read the quotes from Sir David King and the UN and was appalled. I do it because I believe we should all do what we can.

‘I am in a position where I am able to act, so I am doing this. It makes me sick to see climate disasters in the paper – people suffering in countries that have not contributed to this disaster in the same way that rich countries have.

‘The government needs to get a grip and stop all new oil production, tax the wealthy and companies that have caused this disaster and go full green energy.’

A Just Stop Oil spokesman said: ‘We will continue with civil resistance because it is the right thing to do when faced with a harmful government.

“The coming weeks will see the suspension of the capital increase until the government makes a statement to ‘stop new oil and gas’.”

‘Beginning the process of phasing out fossil fuel production in this country is not rocket science, it is not brain surgery. The government is throwing water on the fire that is destroying our only home.’