Essex Police working alongside colleagues from the Metropolitan Police and the Eastern Region have been policing a peaceful protest in The Manorway outside the Coryton Oil Refinery in Corringham.
Protestors started arriving at the site from about 11.30am this morning, Saturday, October 16, and gathered on the road. Essex Police closed the road for the safety of the protestors and other members of the public. Officers have been working to established plans to proportionately police such protests.
There have been no incidents during the protest and no arrests have been made.
Protest group spokesperson Terri Orchard, who is taking part, said: “We don’t have a hope of tackling climate change if we don’t find a way to start moving beyond oil. But Big Oil is relentless. From the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic to the Canadian tar sands, oil companies are devastating local environments, trampling the rights of local communities, and pushing us over the edge to catastrophic climate change.
“We are here at the source of the problem, at the UK’s busiest oil refinery, to stop the flow of oil to London. We’re here to put a spanner in the works of the relentless flow of oil and to say no more. This place, this whole industry, must become a thing of the past.”
Dozens of petrol tankers were stacked on the approach road to the refinery, with many more prevented from leaving the site by the protest.
