Panic buying, police closures and profiteering brought chaos to filling stations yesterday.
Prompted by ministers to fill their tanks to beat a strike that has not even been called, motorists besieged garages and lengthy queues formed around the country.
Prices soared and more than 100 forecourts ran dry. Others were shut on the orders of police worried about ‘fuel rage’. The AA blamed the shambles on the Government, saying the ‘unnecessary and self-inflicted’ shortages were due to poor advice.
Chaos: Prompted by ministers to fill their tanks, motorists besieged garages and lengthy queues formed around the country yesterday. Community Support Officers manage the traffic queuing outside a Total service station in Christchurch, Dorset;
Hazard: Queues like this one on a main road in Christchurch, Dorset, led to police ordering the closure of the county's garages for safety reasons;
Run dry: Even though a strike date hasn't been announced, the threat of one has been enough to drastically deplete stocks, such as is the case with this station in North Shields
Retailers warned last night that large parts of the country could run out of fuel by the end of today if the panic continued.
Some garages had pushed prices well above even the record averages set yesterday of 140.9p per litre for unleaded and 147.1p for diesel.
In places as far apart as Gateshead in the North East and Chorleywood in Hertfordshire, motorists were having to pay an extra 3p to 4p overnight.
Advice: PCSOs tell the manager of a Total service station in Christchurch, Dorset, to close temporarily;
Overflow: A motorist fills up a jerry can as a long queue backs up behind him at a Texaco garage in west Sussex, 2.8miles from the house of Cabinet minister Francis Maude, who sparked confusion by suggesting drivers should store fuel at home;
PANIC BUYING PETROL? WE'RE MORE WORRIED ABOUT PASTY SHORTAGES
There is one place in the UK which is not suffering from panic buying at the petrol pumps - the Scilly Isles.
Local police chief Colin Taylor said today: 'No panic buying on Scilly. Mind you petrol is over £1.70p.'
The sergeant, based on the main island of St Mary's, added: 'It's pasties we are worried about.'
The Scilly Isles are approximately 30 miles from the coast of Cornwall. Fuel has to be ferried across to the region's petrol stations.
Packed: This Tesco petrol station at the Mayflower Retail Park in Basildon Essex is swamped by desperate drivers;
Taking precautions: TV reality star Lydia Bright from The Only Way Is Essex joins the army of panic buyers
Keeping motorists at bay: A security guard directs traffic to petrol pumps at Morrisons in Derby amid panic buying
No extra here: Huge queues wait for petrol at a Tesco filling station in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire;
All out: It was a similar story at this Esso station in Wednesfield in the West Midlands;
Topping up: Tanker drivers replenish stocks at a garage in Weymouth, a town which had all but run out of diesel by yesterday;
In Wilmslow, in Cheshire, there were dramatic price differences at the town’s four big petrol stations – meaning some saw long queues and others were empty.
Resident Fiona Barrett, 56, said: ‘We’ve got everything from garages that can’t handle demand to those charging a crazy price. The town is well served by petrol stations and normally the prices are competitively close.’
Closed: Police had to shut down this garage in Christchurch, Dorset, because the tailback of cars was causing a hazard to traffic as motorists made a desperate bid to top up following news of possible fuel tanker strikes;
Blunder: Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude suggested motorists fill up jerry cans,to avoid shortages
