Essex Police says protests over oil cost force £1m

Essex Police said it had made a total of 268 arrests over oil protests

A police force said it had spent more than £1m dealing with demonstrations at oil terminals over the past week.

Essex Police made 270 arrests in relation to the action that started in Thurrock on 1 April.

Protesters tunnelled under access roads and glued themselves to tankers as they called on the government to halt new oil and gas projects, police said.

Deputy Chief Constable Andy Prophet urged the fuel companies to step up their security.

He said there had been a 24-hour police presence since activists from Just Stop Oil started their protests.

More protesters arrived on Friday morning, he said.

Tactics taken by the protesters included gluing themselves to the road or petrol tankers and breaking into the distribution depots and chaining themselves to the fuelling infrastructure.

DCC Prophet said a number of protesters also "dug a hole at the side of one of the access roads, down 6ft, 10ft, 12ft, and started to go underneath the road" to try to stop tankers using the road.

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He said it had "put a real strain" on the force and he urged the fuel companies to have more security on their sites.

"One million pounds is a lot to Essex Police but a drop in the ocean to some of the private companies we are talking about," he said.

"The big global companies in my view can do more to have more preventative patrols and then it's far easier if police do need to intervene.

"The quicker it is to deal with policing, the less disruptive it is and the quicker we can have the police officers we want returning to their normal duties."

Deputy Chief Constable Andy Prophet said Essex Police had spent £1m dealing with the demonstrations

The force said the arrests were on suspicion of a "variety of offences".

Activists have been protesting at a number of oil terminals across the country, including in the West Midlands, Surrey and Hertfordshire.