Eye-watering sum Just Stop Oil eco-idiots have cost taxpayer with their ‘disruptive’ protests revealed

THE policing bill for Just Stop Oil protests in London has cost taxpayers £5.5million.

Several thousand officer shifts have been used up during the demos instead of on fighting crime.

Some 750 activists were arrested last year, with 116 more since the group began its slow-walk in traffic ploy.

A recent surge in arrests follows the introduction of tougher powers for police to crackdown on “anything more than minor” disruption.

Matt Twist, the Met’s Assistant Commissioner, said 16,500 officer shifts had so far been used to deal with JSO.

He told talk radio station LBC: “If you want to put a monetary value on it, it’s about £5.5million — that’s about 150 officers a day.

“What I could do with 150 officers preventing robberies or investigating crime or supporting victims, is really significant.”

He said JSO protesters charged under public order laws will not appear in court until 2025 due to backlogs.

It comes after investment fund chief Trevor Neilson, who bankrolls JSO, said the climate mob’s slow-walk tactics were “ostracising the exact people they need to engage.”

He said: “Working people are trying to get to their jobs, get their kids to school, survive a brutal cost of living crisis.

“If at the same time they have a pink-haired, tattooed protester standing in front of their car, so that their kid is late for a test, that does not encourage them to join the movement.”