44. Miss Pinkerton asserted that the Claimants had given full and frank disclosure as required by the Supreme Court in Wolverhampton v London Gypsies (citation below). In summary she asserted that the Claimants remained very concerned that protest groups including the 4 Organisations would undertake disruptive, direct action by trespass or blocking access to the 8 Sites and that a final injunction was necessary to prevent future tortious behaviour. In North Warwickshire v Baldwin and 158 others and PUs [2023] EWHC 1719, Sweeting J gave judgment in relation to a claim brought by North Warwickshire council against 159 named defendants relating to the Kingsbury terminal which is operated by Shell, Oil Pipelines Limited, Warwickshire Oil Storage Limited and Valero Energy Ltd. Findings of fact were made in that judgment about the events in March and April 2022 which are relevant to my judgment. Sweeting J. found that protests began at Kingsbury during March 2022 and were characterised by protesters glueing themselves to roads accessing the terminal; breaking into the terminal compounds by cutting through gates and trespassing; climbing onto storage tanks containing unleaded petrol, diesel and fuel additives; using mobile phones within the terminal to take video films of their activities while standing on top of oil tankers and storage tanks and next to fuel transfer equipment; interfering with oil tankers by climbing onto them and fixing themselves to the roofs thereof; letting air out of the tyres of tankers; obstructing the highways accessing the terminal generally and climbing equipment and abseiling from a road bridge into the terminal. In relation to the 7th of April Sweeting J found that at 12:30 (past midnight) a group of protesters approached one of the main terminal entrances and attempted to glue themselves to the road. When the police were deployed a group of protesters approached the same enclosure from the fields to the rear and used a saw to break through an exterior gate and scaled fences to gain access. Once inside they locked themselves onto a number of different fixtures including the top of three large fuel storage tanks containing petrol diesel and fuel additives and the tops of two fuel tankers and the floating roof of a large fuel storage tank. The floating roof floated on the surface of stored liquid hydrocarbons. Sweeting J found that the ignition of liquid fuel or vapour in such a storage tank was an obvious source of risk to life. On the 9th of April 2022 protesters placed a caravan at the side of the road called Piccadilly Way which is an access road to the terminal and protesters glued themselves to the sides and top of the caravan whilst others attempted to dig a tunnel under the road through a false floor in the caravan. That was a road used by heavily laden oil tankers to and from the terminal and the collapse of the road due to a tunnel caused by a tanker passing over it was identified by Sweeting J as including the risk of injury and road damage and the escape of fuel fluid into the soil of the environment. Previous decision on the relevant facts 45.
Assessment of lay witnesses 46.
I decide all facts in this hearing on the balance of probabilities. I have not seen any witness give live evidence. None were required for cross-examination by the Defendants. None were challenged. I take that into account.
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