Just Stop Oil: Yorkshire councillor sent to jail for second time after breaching court order at protest

More than 50 Just Stop Oil protesters, including Scarborough Labour councillor Theresa Norton, were sent to jail last week after refusing to comply with a court order preventing them from blockading the Kingsbury oil terminal in Warwickshire.

The campaigners are demanding urgent action to address climate change – including halting the expansion and use of fossil fuels in the UK.

Huge swathes of North Yorkshire could potentially soon see fracking exploration after Prime Minister Liz Truss announced the Government will lift a ban on gas drilling to improve energy security.

Yet, critics argue it will have a detrimental impact on the environment and any impact on energy prices would take years to materialise.

Cllr Norton appeared before Mr Justice Lavendar at the Royal Courts of Justice in London. However, protesters in London – and at a separate hearing in Birmingham – refused to comply and stood on chairs, turned their backs to the judge and read out prepared statements, The Guardian reports.

The defendants stated they would immediately return to the Kingsbury terminal to breach the injunction if released on bail. In response, 21 protesters in London and 30 in Birmingham were remanded to jail and are due to appear at court again this week.

Since the group first began blocking oil terminals in April there have been more than 1,350 arrests.

In a statement, Cllr Norton said: “We are in the midst of a climate and ecological emergency, as declared by parliament in 2019.

“We have, as a nation, endured more than a decade of austerity which has hit the poorest in society the hardest.

“Two years of a global pandemic, endured by those who stuck to the rules and the essential workers whom we were encouraged to thank – not through pay rises, but by clapping their fortitude.

“Now we are to be punished again through extortionate energy bills and the rising cost of living, which in no way align with current wage levels of the average working person.”

Coun Norton was arrested and charged with wilfully obstructing a highway with a non-motor vehicle in May last year after staging a climate change protest by sitting in the road and blocking traffic on St Nicholas Street in Scarborough town centre.

In February, she was jailed for defying a court order preventing Insulate Britain campaigners from protesting on the M25.

The Labour councillor, who represents the Eastfield ward, was arrested four times in eight days in September 2021 after joining demonstrations on the London motorway.

Coun Norton, of Esplanade Gardens, and four other activists were all charged with contempt of court and were jailed for between 24 and 42 days.

Scarborough’s Labour Group has previously decided not to remove the whip and expel the borough councillor from the party, despite calls for her to go from opposing parties.

Coun Norton was elected to Scarborough Borough Council in 2019 and sits on the Planning and Standards committees.