MOTORISTS are resigned to forecourt flux. Petrol prices never stay still for very long. The only constant is the direction of the change - ever upwards.

The Evening Press has reported the high cost of fuel generally as well as the wide variations within York and throughout the region. Thanks to Britain's latest league table, one that ranks towns by the average price of unleaded fuel, we can now place those findings into a national context.

In one sense, the table confirms what we already knew: British fuel prices are exorbitant, wherever you live. Everyone is paying at least 81p a litre, or about £3.68 a gallon in old money.

More illuminating are the differences between prices. Fill up at Scarborough and you will pay just over 83p per litre. Travel up the coast to Whitby and the price shoots up to 88p.

These wide variations proves it is worth shopping around. However, that is not always an option for the rural motorist, served mostly by privately-owned petrol stations that cannot afford the bulk discounts secured by supermarkets.

In fact, rural motorists get a bad deal all round. Inadequate public transport leaves them with no option but to drive. And the distances involved in a sprawling county such as North Yorkshire are longer than most.

The Unleaded Fuel League Table proves once again that we are getting a raw deal. We pay more than virtually every other European motorist, and considerably more than the American driver. Higher fuel prices affect everyone: those without a car still have to pay shop prices inflated by the extra transport costs.

This highway robbery cannot go on unchallenged. The Dump the Pumps campaign on Yorkshire Day, August 1, is the perfect opportunity to make a protest. A mass boycott of the petrol pumps will leave the Government in no doubt that fuel prices are a cause of mass road rage.