Prices at petrol pumps across the Black Country have been soaring to record highs, with almost £1.13 being charged for a litre of fuel at one garage.
Motoring campaigners and garage bosses are now calling on chancellor Alistair Darling to scrap his planned 2p tax hike next spring.
New figures released by the AA show unleaded petrol has gone up by 15p a litre in the past 12 months, with a 4p per litre rise in the last four weeks alone.
The average price is now a record £1.01 per litre for unleaded petrol and £1.05 for diesel.
But those prices have been smashed by the independent Wilson Hughes Garage, on Stafford Road, Wolverhampton, which is charging 106.9p per litre of unleaded fuel and 112.9p litre of diesel.The diesel price is not displayed on the garage forecourt and is only shown on the pump once drivers lift the nozzle to start filling up their tanks.
Jonathan Thompson, aged 25, from Wombourne, had gone to the garage to fill up with diesel but refused when he saw the price.
“There is no way people can afford that sort of money. Diesel is meant to be better value. The prices are ridiculous,” he said. Staff at the garage today refused to comment on the prices.
Molineux Service Station, near Wolverhampton city centre, is charging 109.9p for diesel and 103.9p for unleaded petrol.
Owner Shailesh Parekh blamed the cost on a diesel shortage in the UK.
He said: “Traditionally, the price of diesel rises in the autumn because northern countries use it as a heating oil as well. If the weather turns really cold, we will have a big problem.”
AA spokesman Paul Waters said: “Retailers, who may have previously shied away from charging above the psychological £1-a-litre barrier, have seen neighbouring competitors do so and followed suit.”
By Daniel Wainwright
21 Comments
How as the goverment allowed this to happen.Its time they got off their backsides and did something ,direct action about this appalling state of affairs.
Soon no bugger will be able to afford to drive to work,will add to dole queue,over crowd all public transport.
What do we pay polititians for?
petrol is about 50p a litre in Canada…. so why is it so much more in England?
we pay taxes on top of taxes in this country. Isn’t it about time that the public did something about that. Lower fuel tax by cutting the amount of expenses that politicians can claim as they waste far too much public money. Other ways to lower fuel tax are to end the amount that is given to ‘unemployed people’. I do not mean the ones that are genuinely unemployed and are struggling to find a job but the ones that are constantly jobless. We all know who they are. Why give benefit to people that have had a baby? If they cannot afford to feed and clothe a child then they should not be bringing a baby into the world. People abuse the system and have loads of kids and earn money from the public - for what? We all know who they are as well. There are lots of ways to lower the fuel tax but the government is too bloody soft with people that do not pay their own way. This country is going to the dogs ain’t no wonder that rich people have tax havens. I do not blame them. If we all didn’t pay so much tax we could all afford so much more.
Totally agree Bruce.
We pay far to much out to people who think they can have kids willy nilly and fall back on the tax payer.
If the jobless have not been in worl for more than 2 years…cut the money force them to get a job if they wont find them one!
Soon get work if they have to starve!
Why should fuel duty be lowered??? Recent fuel price rises have nothing to do with the amount of duty. Might have something to do crude oil being at record high prices on the world market? People need to face reality that we are either at, or approaching “peak oil” at which point oil production goes into decline - and hence prices will rise.
Road transport is already artificially cheap. In real terms, motoring costs have hardly risen in nearly 30 years. At the same time bus and rail fares have gone up 75% in real terms. Its not really the motorist who’s had a hard time is it?
Its interesting that fuel prices don’t appear to have affected the continued desire for larger, less fuel efficient, SUV type vehicles. If people want to overcome price rises, its quite simple - get a more efficient car, and drive more efficiently. If all those people on the motorway who drive at 80+ were really bothered about their fuel consumption, they’d do 60 and use 20% less fuel.
For shorter journeys, its about time people started to walk and cycle more. Around 20% of car journeys are less than a mile (and at those journey lengths cars are least efficient).
Public transport IS a viable option for many journeys.
If people just switched 1 car journey in 10 for an alternative, that would have a significant impact on congestion and fuel consumption.
Once again its all the fault of the unemployed, some people need any excuse to blame the unemployed for everthing now its their fault that petrol and diesel costs so much
If everyone boycotted the 2 big companies (I think they are at the moment Texaco and BP) and we all used the cheaper supermarkets then the main 2 would have to drop there prices or lose billions. Then in turn the “supermarkets” would have to drop there prices to undercut the main 2 and so on etc…. There is only 1 way to beat them and its US the customer that should dictate the price by doing the above
time to get this goverment out
Diesel is about 40p per litre in USA at the moment….so like a.j. asks, why is it so much more in England? We all pay the same amount on the world market for oil.
We now live in South Australia and emigrated there 2 years ago and the increasingly high fuel and heavy taxes being partly reasons for leaving anyway, we are paying between 50p-55p per
litre, the sad irony is …. I get my fuel from a BP garage, and this is the highest its been so what the hell is going on over there. I shall need to leave a hell of a budget for fuel when we visit the UK next year!!!!
Well if you will buy a tractor engine driven vehicle what do you expect?
Fuel is priced in US dollars. With the US stage-managed decline of the dollar against the pound and Euro, fuel should actually be cheaper to purchase for the producers. This is sheer profiteering at the moment.
The solution is very easy.. stop subsidising wars, immigration and the benefit system.
GET RID OF GORDON BROWN and the current LABOUR rubbish.
utterly outrageous.
hopefully their local clientelle will vote with their feet and put these robbing bastards out of business.
#3. The reason behind the lesser price in Canada is purely the tax charged by the respective goverments, here in Canada we also complain about the petrol prices, but we also have to renew our driving licences every 5 years(30 pound) which we did not have to when I lived in England, we also pay 14% tax every time we purchase a car, regardless of if that car is new or second hand, that is also something that we never had to do back home, only when the car was new. The 14% also goes to anything we may but here cars, caravans, motorbikes pretty much everyone new or old, that is a big reason behind the petrol price, the goverment get’s money from many area’s.
Ok, cut the fuel tax. Add it to road tax (£4K a year?) or add it to income tax so workers who don’t even have a car have to pay it.
Or add it to VAT (30%?) so everyone not VAT exempt gets to pay it.
Oh wait, we can keep it on fuel so only those using more pay it?
Bus drivers think they own the roads. I know i am a cyclist and its the most fuel efficient way of getting to work.
Everyone should get on their bike to work, forget buses, wouldn’t trust them as far as I could throw them
I work in Walsall. I used to live in Walsall but I moved away because(in my opinion as someone who was born in Walsall and lived there for 32 years) the town has turned into a complete dump. I would rather pay a high fuel price and sit in traffic than live in Walsall ever again
baggie boy no 7, you have hit the nail on the head. Pitty it aint going to happen. It seems people would rather pay high prices rather than shop around and give there money to a garage that is trying to keep its prices as low as they can afford. It would also be good if everyone could boycott the the petrol stations for one day, millions would be lost and a statement made.
block all petrol ports as soon as possable they will have to do something about it then the french do it us brits are to saft
So Dominic,
How come fuel prices in the US are significantly lower? This is where your argument is fundamentally flawed. We may be using more fuel here in the UK, but the Government must be taxing us far more than the US administration for the privilege!