Demand for drop in petrol tax

Petrol station bosses across the region today urged the Government to cut taxes on petrol and diesel or face a 2008 of discontent.

They say a planned 2p-a-litre tax rise by Gordon Brown next spring would hit profit margins even more and further anger motorists still reeling after a 2p hike in October. Traders feel that the planned tax increase, which has prompted protests around the country today by hauliers and farmers, would put their businesses in jeopardy.

Barj Singh, of Blakenhall Service Station in Dudley Road, Wolverhampton, said: "This hike would cut into our margins even more. When the prices go up it does affect us. More than anything else, you get moans and groans from the customers who come in. We would be against any rise."

Simon Pritchard, from Pritchards Garages in Brierley Hill Road, Dudley, said: "The market seems to be a lot more volatile now and more independent garages will close.

"We just can't compete with the big supermarkets. The situation is bleak and I think petrol prices will go up a lot more in the future."

Eileen Thompson, from Mill Service Station in Stourbridge Road, Lye, said all independent garages were struggling in the current climate.

She said: "We have lost trade in recent months, especially since the petrol prices started going up, and we're struggling, like most independent garages."

The price of unleaded petrol has already smashed through the £1-a-litre barrier – of the current average price of £1.03 a litre, 66p goes to the Treasury, with just over 2p to the dealer.

The average cost of diesel is now £1.08 a litre.

Hauliers and farmers were today demonstrating at oil refineries in Liverpool, Southampton, Jarrow, Essex, Cardiff and Lincolnshire in a bid to restage the strikes which rocked the Labour government in 2000.

The Government has responded by saying any threat to oil supplies will result in the use of the military, anti-terror laws and the seizure of vehicles.