MRS JUSTICE FARBEY:
1. This is a review of the order of Bennathan J made on 29 April 2022. It is the second review. The claimants seek the continuation of the injunction with a further review in around 18 months' time.
2. The background is as follows. The claimants are importers, exporters and distributors of oil and chemical products. In order to carry out their business, they own and operate bulk liquid storage terminals in the United Kingdom. By a claim issued under CPR Part 8 on 11 April 2022, the claimants sought an injunction against persons unknown in relation to activities at seven of their terminals in England. The target of the injunction was and remains environmental protesters. 3. The claimant's injunction application followed a protest at and in the vicinity of the terminal at Grays. According to the evidence filed by the claimants, on 1 April 2022, protesters climbed on top of tankers they had stopped on the access road to the Grays site. Some of the protester chained or glued themselves to fuel tankers. Fuel tanker tyres were let down. By the next morning, the protesters had dug a tunnel under an access road, and some of the protesters were in the tunnel. 4. There was some further protester activity on 5 April 2022 of a lesser sort. According to the evidence, on 10 April 2022, protesters gained access to the Grays site by climbing over the boundary fence using ladders. They gained access to areas classed as hazardous under health and safety regulations because they may contain an explosive atmosphere. The protesters had with them mobile phones, which posed a risk of ignition and are therefore prohibited from being on the site. They glued themselves to each other or chained themselves to infrastructure. The protests continued through 11 April 2022. There were further protests at Grays on 13 and 15 April 2022.
5. I have seen copies of social media postings by Just Stop Oil on 10 and 11 April 2022, which publicise some of the activities at Grays. It is plain from the social media posts that the protesters were expressing their political beliefs. For example, one post says:
"The youth have been holding Grays oil depot for over 24 hours. Young people have had enough of the UK Government's criminal inaction on the climate crisis, which is ultimately going to shorten the lives of so many young people in our society."
6. The claimants were concerned that disruptive and dangerous activity would spread to their other sites and so sought relief in this court. The kind of injunction that the claimants sought has come to be known as a "newcomer" injunction because its terms operate against persons who at the time of the injunction were neither defendants nor identifiable and are described on the injunction simply as "persons unknown" (see Wolverhampton City Council and Others v London Gypsies and Travellers and Others [2023] UKSC 47, [2024] 2 WLR 45).
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