Wigan bike shop boss back in court after another Just Stop Oil protest

Alan Woods has been found guilty of blocking Charing Cross Road, in central London, during a demonstration by Just Stop Oil on October 29.

He was ordered to pay a total of £900 – including a fine, costs and court fees – during the hearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court.

Woods, 58, a company director for Alan’s BMX in Wigan town centre, said: “We were demanding that the UK Government does not licence any further oil and gas projects. I’ve written to my MP, signed petitions, gone on marches and every time we are ignored. The Government is progressing over 100 new licences for oil, gas and now, astonishingly in 2023, coal.

“This is a death sentence for future generations and is affecting the world around us right now. The food shortages we are already seeing in supermarkets this past week will be followed by widespread crop failures and mass migration within my lifetime. Civil resistance is all I have left.”

It follows a hearing at Wolverhampton Crown Court last month where Woods was one of seven Just Stop Oil supporters found guilty of aggravated trespass at an Esso fuel terminal in Birmingham on April 3, which stopped all distribution for around 12 hours.

Since the Just Stop Oil campaign launched on in February 2022, there have been more than 2,000 arrests and 138 people have spent time in prison.