Protester Scott Breen pictured in February 2021
(Picture: PA Archive)Eco-activists have been barred by a new High Court injunction from trying to disrupt work on Esso’s new 105km aviation fuel pipeline.
Scott Breen – nicknamed Digger – was jailed last month after “causing chaos” with an occupation protest against the oil giant next to the M25 in Chertsey, Surrey.
Breen, 48, dubbed a “known tunneller” by Esso, flouted a court order from August with the protest and received a 112-day prison sentence.
Now, a High Court judge has imposed a new four-month injunction on Breen and two associates, Anthony Green and Roz Aroo, banning them from disrupting contruction of the new pipeline.
They have been ordered not to cause damage, dig, enter the construction site, erect structures, spray paint, or stage a sit-in protest.
The Southampton to London Pipeline project (SLPP) is a replacement of an ageing pipeline for aviation fuel to Esso’s base at Heathrow Airport.
Protesters began to target the scheme in December last year when they broke into a site in Alton to damage vehicles and attempt to disrupt the security system.
Different compounds along the pipeline route have been subjected to eco-activist action before Breen, on July 31, dug a 6-8ft pit as part of an occupation and refused to leave in the face of a court order.
Sending him to prison last month, Mr Justice Ritchie called him “arrogant, dismissive” and someone who had “sought to cause chaos”.
Breen was previously part of a campaign group who occupied a network of tunnels under a small park next to Euston station in central London in January last year as part of a protest against the HS2 railway line.
Esso says the new pipeline will help to keep 100 tankers a day off the roads.
At a trial on a later date, the firm plans to seek an injunction until December 202 - the intended completion date - to protect the work from activists.
“Harm has occurred as a result of the protests”, said Judge Nigel Lickley KC.
“The risk of repetition is evident from that past conduct and accompanying messages posted on social media indicating a plan to continue and disrupt into the future.”
He approved a four-month extension, with a trial on the longer court order pending.
The judge also laid out a list of banned activities for activists who could not be identified by Esso.
