The protestors were charged for ‘blocking the highway’ at a Fossil Free London demonstration outside an oil and gas conference in central London yesterday

Two Waltham Forest residents have been charged for causing public disruption at a climate protest in central London yesterday (17th October).

Harry Holmes and Rodrick Cobley were charged with obstructing the highway and have both been bailed to appear at Westminster Magistrates Court on 17th November.

Holmes and Cobley are among 26 protestors to have been charged after the police imposed conditions on the protest. Prominent climate campaigner Greta Thunberg is also among those charged. She is due to appear on bail at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 15th November.

The demonstration, organised by Fossil Free London, saw activists enter the InterContintental Hotel on Park Lane in order to disrupt the Oil & Money conference. The event was a gathering of over 500 senior leaders and executives from the global petrol and gas industry.

In videos posted on X (formerly known as Twitter), activists can be seen being dragged through the hotel by security while shouting “Stop Rosebank”, a planned Scottish oil rig in the North Sea. Outside the hotel, activists holding Fossil Free London placards protested as attendees walked into the event.

At the protest climate campaigner Greta Thunberg said the world was “drowning” in fossil fuels, and that oil and gas companies had “actively delayed, destructed, and denied the causes of the climate crisis and spread doubts about their own engagement in it”.

In a statement the Metropolitan Police said protestors were “asked to move from the road onto the pavement, which would enable them to continue with their demonstration without breaching conditions” and arrests were made when protestors did not move.

Fossil Free London organiser Pascal Hartig said: “This past year we have lived through a crisis of inequality, where our energy bills have spiralled out of control to fund the record-breaking profits of the fossil fuel industry. The Government is asking for more of the same by approving the Rosebank oil field for fossil fuel giant Equinor. It is a carbon bomb and they want the UK public to fund it through tax breaks and subsidies. We cannot afford more fossil fuels like Rosebank.”

No news is bad news

Independent news outlets like ours – reporting for the community without rich backers – are under threat of closure, turning British towns into news deserts.

The audiences they serve know less, understand less, and can do less.

If our coverage has helped you understand our community a little bit better, please consider supporting us with a monthly, yearly or one-off donation.

Choose the news. Don’t lose the news.

Monthly direct debit

Annual direct debit

£5 per month supporters get a digital copy of each month’s paper before anyone else, £10 per month supporters get a digital copy of each month’s paper before anyone else and a print copy posted to them each month. £50 annual supporters get a digital copy of each month's paper before anyone else.