ARMY SET TO FIGHT FUEL CRISIS
Military on standby as thousands of pumps run dry across UK
‘Get worse before it gets better’
SOLDIERS could soon be put on standby to drive fuel tankers after filling stations ran dry yesterday.
Ministers will consider drafting in troops to deliver petrol and diesel later this week if panic-buying persists, sources said.
The Petrol Retailers Association (PRA), which represents 5,500 independent stations, said twothirds had run dry by last night.
Its chairman, Brian Madderson, said it would take up to a week to restock – and warned the crisis could become ‘self-perpetuating’ if motorists continued to panic.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps yesterday refused to rule out bringing in the Army to drive fuel tankers, saying the Government would ‘do whatever is required’.
Ministers are understood to be looking at what additional training military drivers with existing HGV licences would need to take to drive fuel tankers, which require additional safety qualifications.
They will monitor the demand at stations this week with the hope that it will subside within days without the need for further government measures.
In scenes not witnessed since the fuel duty protests 21 years ago, there were queues hundreds of feet long at many petrol stations, as well as confrontations between motorists.
Police vehicles were forced to jump queues to refill and on Saturday evening, an ambulance responding to an emergency call was delayed by traffic outside a Shell petrol station in Bromley, south London, and was involved in a prang with a car.
There was heavy demand at the country’s 1,500 supermarket fuel stations. Morrisons said it was ‘working hard’ to keep its pumps open, while Sainsbury’s said demand was ‘very high’.
Even some motorway services – which charge far more – ran out of supplies.
Mr Madderson said: ‘On average I would say two-thirds of the non-supermarket and motorway service areas are already dry and awaiting their next deliveries. It will take some time to replenish all the forecourts – it will be days running into a week and that’s so long as panic buying does not continue, in which case it could become self-perpetuating.’
He added it was ‘going to get worse before it gets better’.
It came as Mr Shapps sparked a row by accusing the Road Haulage Association (RHA) of irresponsibly ‘manufacturing’ fears over fuel shortages.
Mr Shapps assured drivers the UK has plentiful supplies of petrol and diesel after ministers set out an action plan to address shortages of HGV drivers – a key factor in the supply of fuel and other commodities.
He told Sky News’s Trevor Phillips On Sunday programme: ‘There was a meeting which took place about ten days ago in which one of the haulage associations decided to leak the details to the media and that has created a large degree of concern.’
The RHA denied being responsible for briefing misinformation on fuel supplies and described the allegations as ‘nonsense’.
The Government’s plan to address driver shortages will see 5,000 temporary visas made available to foreign HGV drivers, while a £10million skills plan will train 4,000 more truckers.
But experts believe it is not enough to tackle the issue.
The president of the British Chambers of Commerce, Baroness McGregor-Smith, a Conservative peer, said: ‘Even if these short-term opportunities attract the maximum amount of people, it will not be enough. This announcement is the equivalent of throwing a thimble of water on a bonfire.’