Eighteen protesters belonging to the ‘Insulate Britain’ group halted traffic near Junction 23 at South Mimms in their latest protest which began at 8am today
Climate change protesters had sparked the fury of many motorists again this morning, causing a lot of major traffic disruption when they blocked the M25 for the second time within a week.
Another group had shut down the main carriageway of the M25 motorway anti-clockwise within Surrey between junction 9 at Leatherhead and junction 8 at Reigate.
A multiple vehicle crash near the site of this protest. National Highways said the air ambulance had been deployed to the scene. LBC understands the crash happened on the same side of the motorway around three or four miles from the protest site at junction 8 and 9.
National Highways said: “A secondary incident has occurred where emergency services including helimed are in attendance between J10 and J9. This is a multiple vehicle collision.”
A third group had blocked junction 1b near the Dartford crossing. Demonstrations had also been taking place at Junction 25 on the M25 motorway, the A10 within Hertfordshire and Junction 10 of the A3 in Surrey.
This comes after, on Monday, protestors blocked at least five junctions on the M25, causing miles of queues along the motorway. Footage shared on social media platforms showed angry drivers attempting to drag the protestors from the road.
The group said that it had sent 89 protesters to various sites along the motorway this morning. At around 9.30am the climate group had blocked motor traffic in five locations.
The protest was reported just after 8am on Wednesday.
Protesters held aloft signs saying ‘sorry for the disruption’ as they faced a barrage of insults from motorists stuck in the queue during rush hour.
Police attended the scene at South Mimms shortly after 8am this morning as the route on to the country’s busiest motorway quickly began to clog up.
Enraged drivers plead with climate change protesters’ Insulate Britain’ to move out of the road and let them go to work.
One driver stuck at the scene told LBC today: “They are working against themselves.” Other motorists screamed abuse telling the group “we’ll lose our jobs.”
Hertfordshire police said: “We are currently dealing with an incident near junction 1 (South Mimms) of the A1M southbound involving a small number of protestors.
“Officers are at the scene. The road has been closed and as a result there is some traffic congestion. Motorists are asked to please avoid the area where possible.”
Insulate Britain has said that they want the government to ensure all social housing within Britain is properly insulated by the year 2025 in order to help fight climate change.
Earlier this week there were furious clashes between the protesters and drivers after they carried out a similar protest, blocking the motorway and sparking huge tailbacks. 92 people were arrested.
Many of the protesters taking part in today’s disruption were arrested and held by police for up to 10 hours after Monday’s protest, which was criticised as being “extraordinarily dangerous.”
This comes after Extinction Rebellion have begun a two week series of climate protests in London with activists demanding that the UK government stops new investments into fossil fuels. The campaign group is expecting thousands of people to take part in their “Impossible Rebellion”, which is set “target the root cause of the climate and ecological crisis”.
LBC watched the angry scenes unfold on Monday with some drivers leaving their cars before attempting to drag protesters off roads and others mounting grass verges to avoid delays.
The group held tens of thousands of drivers when they caused long delays in Kent, Surrey, Essex, Hertfordshire and around Heathrow Airport.
Chief Inspector Paul Austin said on Monday: “This incident caused significant disruption and our officers worked to resolve it as quickly and safely as possible.
“I want to thank the drivers affected for their patience and understanding.”
Police forces throughout London and the South East dealt with demonstrations in their areas, with officers making arrests at five locations.
