Editor demands answers over 'nonsensical' decision by Essex Police and Thurrock Council to block delivery of The News

Editor Mark Waldron has said Essex Police and Thurrock Council need to explain why loaded newspaper delivery vans were barred from heading to Portsmouth from the Thurrock print plant following a protest by environmental campaigners.

The protest, which started late on Sunday night, was part of a fuel campaign and not targeted at The News. But police closed the road from the site to all but what they deemed as ‘priority traffic’.

‘I can only apologise to all our readers and advertisers for the lack of The News on Monday. This was due to circumstances well out of our control and a protest which was not specifically targeting us, but which we fell victim to,’ said Mr Waldron.

‘When I was alerted to the protest I was told police had the situation under control and there would be no distribution issues. However, this escalated into a key road to and from the site being closed to all but ‘priority’ vehicles.

‘I’m told police were happy to let oil tankers and food delivery vans through but not The News drivers. Why was it deemed safe for some vehicles and not others? This is simply nonsensical.

‘It also flies in the face of the government’s position that newspapers provide an essential service to readers. On Sunday night we should have been treated accordingly. At the start of the pandemic journalists covering the Covid-19 crisis were rightly given the status of key workers as it was recognised the continued flow of information was vital to people’s lives.

‘But The News is not just here in times of emergency. Since 1877 we have been informing our readers across our patch of what is happening, giving them the information they need, keeping them entertained and ensuring we play a part in bringing communities together. I need a full explanation into why the police and council officials stopped us from doing that.’

An online version of the Monday edition of The News can be found here. Two of the popular additions to Monday’s paper - Monday Sport and the eight-page puzzles pullout - have been added into Tuesday’s edition.

‘We have done what we could to mitigate the disastrous decision in Essex but we should not have been in that position,’ added Mr Waldron.

In a statement today, Essex Police said: ‘Last night (Sunday), we responded to reports of a protest in Grays, where eight people were arrested. Following a risk assessment, the road was closed until around 3am (Monday).

‘It was agreed by the Strategic Co-ordination Group (SCG) to limit vehicle access to the St Clements Way area. The SCG consists of police, Thurrock Council and strategic partners working together in an effort to maintain everyone’s safety, keep traffic moving and minimise the impact of disruption to critical businesses and infrastructure.

‘A partial road closure allowed priority traffic to enter the area. To ensure the integrity and safety of the road, all other traffic was asked to avoid the area.’

Police did not answer our specific question about who decided what traffic was deemed a priority. Thurrock Council did not respond to our request for information.