£1.23 a litre for fuel

Lorraine Tinney Lorraine Tinney - 1626 • Last updated 25 Apr 2008 15:01 2 Comments

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MOTORISTS have been hit in the pocket as fuel costs soar across Inverclyde.

Prices at the Port Glasgow Filling Station in Kilmacolm Road, pictured, rose to £1.23.9 a litre yesterday and some forecourts imposed a £15 limit on customers.

More and more pumps began to close as the crisis deepened - and the situation looked set to worsen this morning after it was announced that talks between unions and management at the crucial Grangemouth oil refinery had broken down.

Meanwhile, it was revealed that Gourock-based ferry company CalMac is looking at contingency plans to keep its fleet afloat if the walk-out, expected to begin on Sunday, takes place.

But pump panic spread yesterday, with high prices across the area.

Motorists had to fork out as much as £1.10.9 a litre for unleaded petrol and £1.20.9 a litre for diesel at the BP Garage at Branchton.

But Port Glasgow Filling Station in Kilmacolm Road raised prices further to £1.15 a litre for unleaded and £1.23.9 for diesel. It had already run out of unleaded and was nearly out of diesel by 3pm yesterday but staff were expecting a delivery today.

A shop assistant said: 'We"ve been a lot busier than usual and put our prices up four days ago, the boss has also put a £15 limit on each customer.'

In Largs, panic buying has sparked long queues at the pumps. Debbie Lyndsey, manager of the BP Castleby Garage, said: 'We"ve been queued out since Sunday but we"ve still got fuel left.' Prices there remained steady at £1.08 a litre for petrol and £1.19 for disesel.

The BP garage in Inverkip Road, Greenock, was charging £1.10 a litre for unleaded and £1.20 for diesel.

CalMac - which carries hundreds of commuters from Dunoon to Gourock every day - confirmed the company uses diesel from the Grangemouth plant and said it was in regular contact with Government ministers over the situation.

Company spokesman Hugh Dan MacLennan said: 'We don"t see any threat to services at the moment and would urge people to carry on as normal.

'We have a comfortable amount of stocks left and don"t anticipate any problems over the next few days.

'If Grangemouth has to close, we will have to take advice from the Government. The priority will go to blue light services such as the army, ambulance and police.'

Talks between Grangemouth bosses and union Unite at conciliation service ACAS broke down yesterday, meaning Sunday"s two-day stoppage looks set to go ahead.

Staff at the plant are angry at plans to close their final salary pension scheme to new workers and to make other pensions changes.

Today, the Scottish Government admitted the strike looked likely, but Finance Secretary John Swinney cautioned against panic.

He said: 'We have taken preparations to make sure there are ample supplies of petrol and diesel available well into May and that"s obviously predicated on consumer purchasing patterns remaining as we would expect them to be.

'We also have the ability to import fuel if we need to support the stocks we have already within Scotland.'

This article appeared in Greenock Telegraph 24 Apr 08

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JulietBalfour
4 posts
Apr 24, 16:41
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Why are people panicking exactly? The Grangemouth site has supplies until mid May. If the shutdown does cause problems then there are 11 other refineries in the UK.

The way the media are driving a panic on this is disgraceful.

However, whislt at BP Branchton on Tuesday one of their pump machines only had their more expensive ultimate unleaded left - havent seen that before so theres obviously people falling for the media hype.

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