Fury at M-way fuel price rip-off
A MOTORWAY service station was yesterday slammed for charging an extortionate 156.9p per litre for diesel, the most expensive in Britain.
Drivers at the Shell M1 forecourt at Thorpe Astley in Leicestershire can pay up to £85 for a full tank.
If they were to leave the carriageway at the nearby junction a few hundred yards away, the Asda supermarket is 30.2p a litre cheaper.
The difference means that filling up on the M1 costs more than £16 extra for 55 litres.
A truck or coach with a tank of fuel – 160 litres – would pay about £50 over the odds.
Company director Terry Lawrance, 60, from Hertford, discovered the rip-off while filling up his car last Friday.
He said: “To pay £1.56 is outrageous, I was disgusted at the prices.
“As a percentage, 20p more than the national average makes it 15 per cent higher.”
Photos show the prices, set last Thursday, on display on Tuesday afternoon.
Another motorist said: “We discovered the Asda because my husband was so disgusted at the mark-up at the service station.
“The Asda’s only a couple of minutes from the motorway and was so much cheaper.
“Quite a few people come off the motorway to use the supermarket and I hope it shames the service station into being less of a rip-off.”
The price is despite a recent fall in oil prices, according to the RAC.
The average rate across the UK is £1.37 per litre, it says.
Howard Cox, founder of campaign group FairFuelUK, said: “Faceless opportunists in the fuel supply chain exploit millions of motorists because this essential commodity and its pricing goes unchecked.
“They can do what they want – and they do. Motorway services use their monopoly position to fleece drivers with no justification but profiteering.”
He added: “Along with MPs across all parties, we call on the Government to set up an independent price monitoring body to make pricing changes at the pumps transparent.”
The figure beat the previous record of 154.9p per litre, set last week at the Moto services off the A1(M) at Washington, Tyne & Wear.
The rise is despite this month’s Budget that continues a freeze on fuel duty.
Welcome Break, which operates the service station, declined to comment.