HUNDREDS of climate change protestors blocked the main road leading up to Coryton Oil Refinery.

Twelve members of protest group Crude Awakening locked themselves to immobilised vehicles on both lanes of The Manorway in Stanford-le-Hope. They were joined by between 400 and 500 other protesters who set up a second blockade near to the junction with The Manorway and Rookery Hill.

Officers from the Met, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, and Hertfordshire police forces were drafted into help Essex cops police the demonstration.

Despite the large numbers there were no arrests and the protestors began to move off peacefully at about 5.30pm.

The group had announced plans to target a number of central locations in London as part of a day of action, but claim this was a decoy and Coryton was their target all along.

Protestor Stephen Milligan, 27, from Oxford, said: "It's been an excellent day. For six hours we have stopped tankers full of oil from leaving the refinery."

SEE MONDAY'S ECHO FOR FULL STORY AND PICTURES