Hurricane is blamed as fuel cost goes sky high

Motorists were warned today that forecourt prices could rise even further.

Drivers are having to pay almost £1.02 for a litre of super unleaded at the Spar Texaco filling station in Heworth, where prices rose for an incredible three days running last week.

Diesel is just a whisker short of the £1 mark at the BP filling stations in Helmsley, selling at 99.9 pence a litre, while it is retailing for 98.9 pence at the Bayford Thurst garage on the A64 between York and Malton.

Meanwhile, at the WCF filling station on the A166 at Gate Helmsley, between York and Stamford Bridge, ordinary unleaded petrol costs 99.9 pence a litre.

The garage's owner, Peter Colley, says he isn't certain what he will do if the price goes above £1, creating an extra digit for the pumps' electronic displays.

"We would have difficulty getting the equipment to cope if it goes any higher," he said.

But he insisted that the hiked prices did not mean any extra profits for him, even though he had ended up in the frontline for grumbles from shocked and disgruntled motorists.

He claimed that he only made 2p per litre, including VAT, and that he simply sold petrol as a service which helped attract other business to his garage.

Fuel companies Bayford and Texaco said today the hikes in forecourt prices were a direct result of a massive 8p increase in the wholesale market price last week, which itself came after Hurricane Katrina destroyed refineries in south-east America.

They could not say whether there would be any further increases at the filling stations, with a Texaco spokesman saying this would be largely dependent on whether wholesale prices rose any further.

But RAC Foundation director Edmund King said he believed motorists may not have seen the last rise.

"I think that at least one more increase is likely over the next week or so," he said.

He did not anticipate any significant drop, at least in the short-term, with prices likely to remain in the 90s for some time to come.

He said soaring demand for fuel from China had been pushing up prices even before the hurricane, and there was little prospect of such demand decreasing.

Mr King called for the Government to introduce a sliding scale for fuel duties, that could rise or fall dependent on whether the wholesale price was going up or down.

He said that while fuel duties had not risen this year, Britain's were still the highest in Europe.

He also pointed out that the exchequer benefitted from increased VAT revenue every time pump prices went up.

Mr King added that it was thought that thousands of petrol pumps across the country would have to be adjusted if prices went above £1 a litre, because they could not display more than 99.99 pence per litre.

He said such equipment had been devised at a time when a price of more than £1 a litre had been unthinkable.

'If it gets any dearer, I might pack it in'

ONE of the York area's biggest hauliers revealed today he may close down if fuel prices soar any higher.

Roy Handley, owner of A1 Plant and Haulage (York), of Elvington, said the haulage side of his business - which deploys 14 lorries - was being badly hit by the rocketing cost of diesel, with his weekly fuel bill now coming to about £30,000.

"We are not making any profits on the wagons," he said.

"If it goes any higher, we will have to make up our minds whether to pack up.

"You can't put the rates up because you don't get the work. People complain all the time."

He said the business carried building materials and took away waste from sites in the York area, and if he shut it down and made his drivers redundant, people in the York area might have to call in firms from the Leeds area.

Roy, who hit the headlines in 2003 when he held off armed raiders who had broken into his home, said: "We are being burgled by the Government. They should cut the fuel duties.

"I wouldn't mind so much if they used the taxes to improve the roads, which are in a terrible condition.

"If the roads were in Africa, Tony Blair would be doing it."

Kate Gibbs, of the Road Haulage Association, said a couple of haulage firms in the South had recently gone into liquidation, blaming high fuel prices, and others were considering closing down before going bust.

"We want to see some form of fuel rebate. We want the Government to cut fuel duties," she said.

"About two thirds of the price of fuel is fuel duties and VAT."

We asked people in York what they thought about the high price of fuel

Marta Hardy, from Heworth: "I think higher prices could be a good thing for the environment, and for our children and

grandchildren, if it forces us to use public transport instead."

Maureen Irving, 62, of Plantation Way, Wigginton, said: "I drive a diesel VW Polo and have noticed recently it now costs me £40 to fill up at the pump - which is pretty silly and does make me annoyed."

Antony Peck, 70, of Poppleton, said: "It's really very sad, but understandable that prices have had to go up. I can remember when it was one and four a gallon".

Richard Chaland, 56, of Woodthorpe, said: "I have been driving for 40 years and can remember the times when petrol in the UK was amongst the cheapest."

Clare Cartledge, of Pickering: "I drive to York from Pickering every day, and it does hurt in the pocket. I would like lower duties."

Updated: 16:23 Tuesday, September 06, 2005