Insulate Britain slammed as 'menace' after roadblocks cost taxpayers £1MILLION in one month

INSULATE Britain have been slammed as a "menace" after roadblocks cost taxpayers £1MILLION in just one month.

Police forces across the country have forked out thousands to de-glue mobs of eco-zealots from the tarmac – with the figures set to climb as eco-activists vow to continue blocking roads.


In October alone, five demonstrations in the capital cost Met Police £1million in total – an average of £200,000 per protest – Sun analysis of FOI statistics has shown.

One clash saw a man glue his FACE to the tarmac with superglue – before painfully admitting it "wasn't one of my better moves" as he had his hair chopped off with scissors.

Cops were seen pulling protesters off the road before carting them away in police vans.

Meanwhile, cops spent £8,396 per day on two Insulate Britain protests which were blocking off major roads in Hertfordshire.

In total, October cost the two police forces – the only two that have responded to FOI requests so far – £1.017million, analysis suggests.

Earlier this month it was revealed that the Met forked out £1.96million to police the first four weeks of chaos from September 13, the date of Insulate Britain's first protest.

This figure works out at around £200,000 per day, the FOI obtained by LBC revealed.

Meanwhile, Hertfordshire Police spent £58,000 on just seven protests in September and October.

The amount works out at around £8,396 each day, the BBC's Local Democracy Reporting Service found.

Joe Ventre of the TaxPayers' Alliance said the group should pay off the cost themselves.

Digital campaign manager Joe told the Sun: "If these right-on road blockers insist on being a menace to motorists, then it seems only fair that they should pick up the tab for their disruption and costs to taxpayers."

EYE-WATERING COST

Heartbreaking footage from Insulate Britain's protest on October 4 saw a woman following her 81-year-old mum in an ambulance beg the "selfish" eco-warriors to let her pass.

Demonstrators had sealed off key routes at Blackwall Tunnel, Hanger Lane, Wandsworth Bridge and Arnos Grove – holding four corners of the capital hostage.

The woman screams: "She’s in the ambulance, she’s going to Canterbury – do you think I’m stupid? She’s in Canterbury!

"I need to go to the hospital, please move your cars. This isn’t okay!"

Despite her helpless cries, the protesters refused to budge.

And the woman could be heard begging: “How can you be so selfish? This is so selfish.

"Can you not just understand, my mum is 81 and she’s going to hospital.

"Unbelievable. On your conscience let it be."

'MENACE TO MOTORISTS'

The group's actions were put to Insulate Britain's highly controversial ringleader Roger Hallam – who admitted he would block an ambulance taking a dying patient to hospital for the sake of his group's cause.

Boris Johnson branded the group "irresponsible crusties" who are "trying to stop people going about their day's work and doing considerable damage to the economy".

Last week, Insulate Britain protesters admitted they didn't think they would "get away" with their demonstrations for so long.

"What the public needs to understand is that we will keep fighting," protester Tracey Mallaghan told Sky News.

"We work on a week-by-week basis. Not one of us thought we'd get away with more than two or three weeks of this.

"We all, genuinely, were prepared to go to prison."




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