Petrol chaos goes into its third day
HUGE QUEUES AND CLOSED FORECOURTS IN CITY
FRUSTRATED drivers faced more long queues and closed petrol stations yesterday.
The overwhelming demand for fuel in Nottingham persisted for a third day despite a warning by the Government not to panic buy fuel and goods as a result of a lorry driver shortage.
Stations in Nottingham, Bulwell, Bingham, Top Valley, Hucknall and West Bridgford and East Bridgford were all reportedly hit by the shortages and resulting queues.
Petrol pumps at Morrisons in Bulwell, Tesco in Top Valley and Shell in Bingham reportedly ran out of petrol and diesel, with some cordoned off with signs and cones. Some were later resupplied, according to eyewitnesses.
Queues stretched through streets in Bulwell as motorists tried to reach petrol stations.
Multiple Nottingham bus services were delayed and some could not reach stops due to the traffic.
On Saturday the Government announced that more than 10,000 foreign workers would be temporarily permitted to work as lorry drivers and in the food sector as ministers acted to rescue Christmas from supply shortages.
They confirmed that 5,000 fuel tanker and food lorry drivers would be eligible to work in the UK for three months until Christmas Eve.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, talking to the BBC’S Andrew Marr Show, did not rule out calling on military drivers to get fuel to petrol stations.
Mr Shapps said: “We’ll do whatever’s required.”
He urged motorists to “fill up when you need to, then there’s actually plenty of petrol to go round”.
BP and Tesco have said that some stations have been closed due to a lack of HGV drivers.
There are around 1,200 Bpbranded filling stations around the country, 300 operated by BP itself, and the oil giant has said “a handful” had been forced to close.
As reported by the Mirror on Friday, the oil giant, the UK’S largest operator of petrol stations, did not confirm the number of closures.
In a statement, BP said: “We are experiencing some fuel supply issues at some of our retail sites in the UK and unfortunately have therefore seen a handful of sites temporarily close due to a lack of both unleaded and diesel grades.
“These have been caused by some delays in the supply chain which has been impacted by the industry-wide driver shortages across the UK and there are many actions being taken to address the issue.”
Esso, which owns 200 Tesco Alliance sites, has reported similar issues with a “small number” of them. Tesco saif it had a “good availability of fuel”.
The BBC reported that both Sainsbury’s and Asda had no issues in fuel supplies.