Oil firm Esso secures protest injunction over pipeline replacement project at Bishop's Waltham

Activists have targeted efforts to replace the majority of the underground Southampton to London pipeline by interfering with equipment and ‘attacking’ it with angle grinders, a judge was told.

The pipeline runs to the north of Bishop’s Waltham, near Bigpath Lane, and is currently under construction.

One protester, named in a court document as Scott Breen, has dug himself in next to the M25 at Runnymede, Surrey, to try disrupt the installation of the replacement pipe, a court heard.

The Southampton to London Pipeline project, which received development consent in October 2020, aims to replace 90km of pipe between Boorley Green in Hampshire and Esso’s west London terminal storage facility in Hounslow, near Heathrow.

Replacing the pipeline originally constructed in 1972, it will help keep 100 tankers a day off the road, Esso claims, and is due for completion next year.

Esso was granted an interim injunction against Mr Breen and ‘persons unknown’ following a hearing at London’s Royal Courts of Justice.

Timothy Morshead QC, representing Esso, said in written submissions it urgently sought the injunction to prevent people from ‘conspiring to injure’ its business ‘by unlawful means’.

‘The unlawful means in question consist of the actual and threatened trespasses to goods and also to land which [Esso] has experienced – and which continues to be threatened against the pipeline project,’ Mr Morshead said.

He added: ‘The activities carried out by some protesters go far beyond lawful and peaceful protest, and give rise to serious health and safety concerns.’