Simply Cease Oil protests price Met Police £7.7M since April

The Metropolitan Police have spent £7.7m policing 13 weeks of Simply Cease Oil protests, the drive has mentioned.

Protestors mounted 515 protests since April and the price of dealing with the disruption amounted to the equal of 23,500 officer shifts.

Actions included sluggish marches in busy London roads and disrupting main sporting occasions, and greater than 270 individuals have been arrested.

It comes on prime of the £7.5m officers spent policing Simply Cease Oil (JSO) demonstrations between October and December final yr.

Assistant commissioner Matt Twist instructed LBC the drive was “resilient” however coping with a “power” concern.

He mentioned: “When it comes to each single day, we’ve acquired over 150 officers who ordinarily can be policing in native communities, who’re policing in and round different elements of London.

“And one of many challenges we’ve with Simply Cease Oil is that they don’t inform us the place they’re going to protest, they don’t inform us after they’re going to take this motion, they don’t have interaction, which implies that we’ve to place extra officers on it than we in any other case would do.”

Activists have disrupted occasions together with The Open, Wimbledon, the Ashes, the Gallagher Premiership rugby remaining at Twickenham and the World Snooker Championship.

Chelsea Flower Present and the London Satisfaction March additionally noticed motion taken, whereas protestors disrupted filming of the Channel 4 present The Final Leg, and sprayed orange paint on the Division of Vitality Safety and Web Zero constructing in central London.

A spokesperson for the mayor of London mentioned: “The mayor helps the democratic proper to protest, nonetheless, Sadiq has at all times been clear that protests have to be carried out safely and lawfully and shouldn’t put Londoners or the capital’s restoration in danger.

“The acute climate occasions London has skilled in recent times present how way more must be accomplished to deal with the local weather emergency, however protestors ought to contemplate whether or not their strategies danger turning public opinion towards a vitally necessary trigger.

“The mayor helps the Met’s efforts to maintain Londoners protected and preserve our metropolis shifting.”