LONDON, July 19 (Reuters) - Climate-change activistsExtinction Rebellion have been banned from using their trademarkboats in the last of a series of Summer protests on Friday.
The boats - repainted and pulled around on trailers - havebecome a symbol of the group's demonstrations and were used tostop traffic in five British cities this week as part of a“summer uprising.” In April, a pink boat was used to block majorroads and cause traffic chaos around Oxford Circus junction incentral London.
Police warned on Thursday that the April protests wereunacceptable and they would not tolerate that level ofdisruption again.
“We need to balance [their right to protest] with the rightsof those wishing to go about their daily lives and action willbe taken against those who choose to ignore this conditionand/or break the law,” said Commander Jane Connors.
Police said the boats would be banned for Friday's demos,which began with a protest at the construction site of London’s4.2 billion-pound super-sewer project.
Extinction Rebellion says it wants to cause even greaterdisruption in October than it did in April, when protestsincluded stopping trains and defacing offices of oil majorShell.
It aims to use non-violent civil disobedience to forcegovernments to cut carbon emissions more quickly.
(Reporting by Freddie Hayward; editing by Stephen Addison)
