Fuel protesters today set off on their go-slow convoy from Tyneside to London but pledged to steer clear of York following a court injunction secured by North Yorkshire Police.

However, hauliers from the York area were hoping to join the protest tomorrow morning, following a overnight stop by the convoy somewhere on the A1.

Roy Handley, proprietor of Elvington-based A1 Haulage, was one of those hoping to join up with the protest in response to "getting nothing" from the Chancellor's pre-Budget statement.

He claimed Gordon Brown's cuts in "green" fuel duty would not help hauliers as they would not be able to buy it in bulk due to it being so sparsely available.

He said: "We've got to protest against this. We don't want to, but we've got to. We won't go anywhere near York but we were never going to go into the city centre anyway.

"We know the problems with the floods and we were just going to go around the ring road. I think the police have been a bit rough-handed by banning us."

North Yorkshire Police have obtained a notice under Section 12 of the Public Order Act, giving senior police officers the power to determine the route which should be taken by demonstrators.