Residents urged not to buy fuel unnecessarily

West Sussex residents were urged not to panic buy petrol after forecourts across the county were inundated in recent days.

Long queues began to form on Friday after reports of a shortage of drivers to deliver fuel to some petrol stations in the UK.

But despite assurances there was plenty of petrol to go around, queueing continued throughout the weekend and intothisweek–scenesthatwere mirrored across the country.

Speaking on Friday, West Sussex County Council leader Paul Marshall said: “I would urgeresidentstothinkcarefully and not buy fuel unnecessarily.

“We can look after our communities if we all play our part and only use what we need.”

Sussex Police issued a warning on Friday as some queues tailed back onto local roads.

A spokesman for the force said: “Keeping our highways clearisessentialforemergency service vehicles to respond to incidentsswiftlyandhindering them poses a serious public health risk.

“Pleasebeawareofthewider safety implications of queuing around petrol stations and do continue to follow the latest government guidance around the buying of fuel.

Our journalists have been thorough in advising readers of local petrol shortages on our website and the reasons why people should not panic buy .

You should continue to log on to our free to read sites for the latest information.

However, a weekly newspaperinitsprintedformat isnotabletorespondsoquickly with up to date information and we are conscious that the unintended consequence of extended coverage in print is tofurtherexacerbatethecrisis.

For that reason we have taken the decision to severely limit what we are publishing in today’s newspaper and we advise everyone to only buy petrol when you absolutely need it.