Man who missed his dad's funeral because of Just Stop Oil protests on the M25 said he will 'never, ever forgive' them

9 November 2022, 18:59 | Updated: 10 November 2022, 05:51

By Fran Way

@journofran

A grieving man has said he was forced to miss his father’s funeral after Just Stop Oil protestors blocked the M25.

Tony Bambury described the heart-breaking call to his mother yesterday morning to say he wouldn’t be able to make it in time for the funeral as he was sat in gridlock.

He was travelling from Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire to the funeral in Pitsea but when activists climbed up onto overhead gantries on the M25 in the early hours of the morning, he made a sharp turn down the backroutes which were then rammed with cars doing the same.

Speaking to the BBC and ITV Meridian he said he would ‘never, ever’ forgive the protestors for taking away his last change to say goodbye to his dad.

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He said: “I was actually due to be a pullbearer on my father’s coffin along with my son and we both got that taken away from us.

“There was a sense of how dare they, how dare they have the lack of forethought.

“To say ‘I’ll tell you what we’re going to do, we’re going to block these roads and be damned everybody else’.

“By doing this, the civil disruption you don’t raise people to your cause, you actually alienate yourselves on this.

“There’s nothing we couldn’t done but someone that I don’t know has taken that ability for me to say farewell to my father away from me and I actually said a few choice words, as I mentioned, on their Twitter page but nothing’s come back saying ‘we’re so terribly sorry for what happened’, and if they did I would tell them to stick it where the sun don’t shine because frankly there’s nothing these people can say to make it any better in my eyes and I will never, ever forgive these people for what they have done to me.”

Another man missed the birth of his child this week too, according to the Daily Mail. The man said: “My wife gave birth yesterday afternoon, she was alone whilst I was stuck on the M25 desperately trying to reach the hospital. Unforgivable, I totally sympathise with your cause but I’m disgusted with what you deem the right way to highlight it’.

Just Stop Oil hasn't directly replied to Tony's comments on social media but in a statement warned that the protests will continue 'every day and anywhere'.

They said: "This is not a one-day event, expect us every day and anywhere."This is an act of resistance against a criminal government and their genocidal death project."Our supporters will be returning today, tomorrow and the next day, and the next day after that, and every day until our demand is met: no new oil and gas in the UK."