A disgruntled mum told how she uses her walk home from work to deflate the tyres of 4x4s and SUVs. The 62-year-old says she doesn't like the cars "imposing" on her and is "fed up" with air pollution.
Anna, not her real name, lives close to Battersea and was shocked by the number of SUVs she was seeing. As her loathing of the larger cars grew, as did her determination to "disarm" them.
The mum of three, writer, volunteer and film worker, told MyLondon she has been caught letting the air out of SUVs by their owners and chauffeurs. But so far she has avoided the police.
While she knows her actions on the streets of West London are criminal, Anna says it's action against climate change. And she's not scared of being arrested.
She joined Tyre Extinguishers, an environmental activist group, about ten years ago. "I remember when the Smart Cars came out and I thought it would change the way we travel around cities," she said.
"I realised after a while that this wasn't the case, I just kept seeing cars getting bigger and bigger. It angered me because I just thought that they are so unnecessary in size.
"The cars are releasing carbon emissions and polluting the area around me and I can't do anything about it. They're being imposed on me and I thought for a long time about what I could do about it. Then I found out about the Tyre Extinguisher movement".
Anna also labelled SUV drivers as "aggressive" and "selfish". She likened their drivers to smokers and believes that, like smoking indoors, SUVs should be banned.
"If people won't be considerate then action needs to be taken. It is the same with cigarettes.
"I don't want to be doing it and I don't enjoy it but it's an extreme reaction that comes from desperation. If the government won't do anything then what else can we do?"
Reagrding the question of endangering vehicle users' safety, Anna said she had considered it but didn't think the "danger SUVs are causing" outweighs the threat of people being injured in a crash.
