A FILLING station near York will close down in protest against high fuel duties on August 1 - Dump the Pump Day.

And the proprietors are urging other garages in North Yorkshire to consider taking the same action.

Under the "Dump the Pump" protests against fuel taxes, motorists across Britain are being urged to refuse to buy petrol or diesel on August 1, and to keep repeating the exercise until prices and taxes come down.

Roy Handley, owner of Trueman and Partners' village filling station at Elvington, intends backing the action by shutting the forecourt throughout the day.

He said high fuel duties hit him in two different ways. As well as affecting the price of petrol at the filling station pumps, the high cost of diesel also hit his other business, A1 Haulage. "It's costing us about £25,000 per month for derv," he said.

His business partner Michael Trueman, who runs the filling station, said: "If other garages would join us in closing on August 1, it would certainly make them sit up and look.

"They did it in America and it worked there. They boycotted the garages and they had to reduce the duties."

He said the filling station, which normally opened from 8am to 6pm, would shut throughout the day. Unleaded petrol was currently costing 84.9 pence a litre, and he claimed that 86 per cent of this went in duties. "When a motorist buys £10 of petrol, he is only getting £1.40 worth," he claimed.