THE rocketing price of fuel has left Bolton motorists fuming, forcing some to use their cars less.
The cost of a litre approached record highs this weekend, pushing 120p.
A record average high of 119.7p was set in July, 2008, when diesel peaked at 133.25p. A year ago, fuel at the pumps was about 30p a litre cheaper.
Petrol pump prices vary at petrol stations around the town, and drivers filling up at the Esso garage in Bradford Street, Bolton, were paying 118.9p a litre.
The recent price hike has been caused by soaring wholesale petrol prices — from $680 a tonne a month ago to approaching $800 now — coupled with fuel duty rises.
A 1p duty increase was added on Thursday, with further penny increases planned for September and January. Motorist Eric MacDonald, aged 64, who owns a car recovery business in Bury, said: “The prices are not bringing a smile to anyone’s face.
“I do quite a bit of driving but it is just getting so expensive.
“It has a knock-on effect because now I am having to put my prices up for customers to cover it.
“No-one goes for a pleasure drive anymore to take the kids for a day out because it is just so costly.”
Sarah Pendlebury, aged 37, from Bolton, said: “I try to walk more often rather than use the car.
“I get a petrol allowance from work, but it does not incorporate the price rises.
“It just keeps getting higher and higher.”
Michelle Brown, aged 41, a legal secretary from Breightmet, said: “The price is scandalous. They are making so much money on taxes.
“The price of oil had been dropping but that has not been passed on to the customers.
“I walk two miles to work because it is just getting more and more expensive to drive.”
Retired Barry Manville, aged 61, from Harwood, said: “A couple of years ago people were protesting when it was 112p and now it is 119p and no-one seems to be bothered which I don’t understand.
“People just seem to be accepting that it will rise.
“The government has increased it, but the oil price has not gone up that much so someone is making a lot of money somewhere at the consumers’ expense.”
Paul Watters, the AA’s head of public affairs, said that as the petrol prices rise, sales at the pump fall.
He added: “We know through our AA/Populus surveys that £1.10 is the point at which UK drivers’ tolerance of rising fuel prices begins to run low.
“With greater restriction on family budgets from pay restraints, lower savings income and other fallout from the credit crunch, it should come as no surprise that rising fuel costs started to hit sales below that point.
"We have consistently argued that putting more fuel duty on petrol and diesel while prices are this high inflicts more pain for no gain.“
Something has to give. Big companies like the petrol giants or the banks can't keep screwing the common people for ever. More and more in our society the "little" people are paying for the greed of the big business'. Anyone noticed how prices have gone up in the shops over the last year? Who's paying a mortgage of over 4% when the base rate has been under 1% for a year? Two of my mates have been declard bankrupt in the last few months and they didn't exactly have massive debts, something has to give soon.
i pisses us all off but what can we do NOTHING we just have to accept it and take it up the tail pipe. one garage round here is charging 122 a litre needless to say the forecourt is not very full
Surprised they aren't doing their best to keep prices down before the general 'election'.
Anyone remember petrol it was 103.9 two months ago? There is no reasoning behind the ridiculous price hikes, petrol is more vital than other commodities as it's needed to go to and from work, and for businesses to keep running. This is a few pence off the record high prices that we saw (and paid) in late 2008.
Would the energy companies get away with the same rapidly fluctuating prices? I can't believe it can go from 92p last summer to what it is now in the space of 9 months.
WHere is this article from Violet?
m8 the goverment are raking a small fortune of this so why would they want to fight against it i dont think the rake so much in off gas and electric so if they fight against that it looks as if they are doing somthing good for us
we should find a petrol station prepared to drop its prices and all use that one and boycot all the others until they drop there prices or do what the french do and all get together and turn all the motorways into giant car parks until the government back down its up to us stand up not lie down and roll over
People are too lazy to shop around. There are always plenty of mugs filling up in that BP petrol station in Greasby despite the fact that it is always more expensive, sometimes by as much as 5p per litre than the Shell and Sainsburys petrol stations in upton just 2 minutes drive away.
we should find a petrol station prepared to drop its prices and all use that one and boycot all the others until they drop there prices or do what the french do and all get together and turn all the motorways into giant car parks until the government back down its up to us stand up not lie down and roll over
Talking poop there. If a garage drops it's price they will lose out. Mark up on petrol is only 3p per litre at most.
Only way garages make money is from cigs sales and stock inside the garage.
if they triple there income by lowering there prices and still sell three times the shop items then doesnt that make good buisness sense ?
Your missing the point.
If you lower the price of the petrol so you make 1p per litre thats only £400 for a whole tanker. Some garages only take 2 tankers a week.
People ain't going to use a cheap garage for fuel and pay £1.50 for a can of coke. £1 for a mars bar are they?
The garage take around 1% of the profit, which must be a lot considering the amount that is sold everyday.
just got from tesco 117.9.
Cheapest I saw today was Sainsbury's Upton, 116.9 so filled up.
There should be some kind of protest but trying to motivate anyone into doing anything more than click on a poll is more or less impossible. About the only thing that possibly could make any difference is pressure from the media.
But more likely, people will grumble and take it.
40,000 litres taking a 2p p/l is £800
Dependent on who owns the garage it might be alot of £££ but there are alot of bills aswell.
I use this website cos I regulary travel between 3 destinations, so if you put all 3 post codes into their search engine it gives you the cheapest petrol/diesel prices nearby as regular email updates, they don't spam you with other rubbish, just petrol prices twice a week.
http://www.petrolprices.com/
Good website, use it myself too
Doubt very much the government pays any attention to facebook 'petitions'. How many of the 50k people on there will actually do this, and how will it matter?
Were all in shit, I get under 25mpg most of the time haha... but were just going to live with it, it's part of life now!! No point in moaning about it, weve been moaning about it for too long, and where has it got us?? If your car is too uneconomical, just get a fkin diesel... or like me, just be stupid and burn and waste money getting from A-B needlessly, albeit in luxury! And if a diesel with 40mpg+ around town and 60mpg+ on motorways is too expensive, I think that's telling you something about your finances and car ownership viability!
Lets just pay the price and get on with life!!
I just worked out, I put in 10 quid a day for petrol, so that's 70 a week. With the duty and tax that the govt take out, I am giving £52.50 (I may be wrong with a few p) per week on fuel alone.
I put £50+ a week in and I don't even commute to work as I work from a home office. So it appears lesuire time costs a lot in this country, right from the word go.
But it's what we earn money for right, so whats the problem with it? Don't get so irate or upset by it, its not going to change anything by doing so.
Enjoy life, don't worry, be happy!
No-one's upset, everyone wants change and cheaper petrol, it's not right that we have to pay for unjust prices.
I'm only going to Chester or Liverpool and back everyday, it's staggering how much 1000cc car can use when it's this expensive.
I use over 100 quids worth of petrol per week?
I hate it as much as the next person, and think they should remove the tax and charge 20% VAT instead... but it wont happen, they would up the VAT rate and leave the tax intact anyway.
Unfortunately, after 13 years of a wreckless Labour government, we have no cash in the pot, and an unimagineable level of debt, that is going to take 3 generations to pay off, so its just something we are going to have to learn to accept and forget about.
Its probably only another 15 years of pain anyway, before an alternative fuel begins to make a real impact (wait till they start taxing water or electric at an absurd rate, then we really will be in the shit).
people have short memories and this same wreckless goverment could get back in and continue to milk the motorist in all the ways they have been doing so as to pay for there pet ideas
Anyone would think the Tory's never ever put up petrol prices when they were in government, well whoever wins the election, you can bet they won't bring them down again to what appears to be an affordable level.
ive got a small fishing boat that runs on diesel fuel, now i used to be able to run it on red diesel BUT this robbing bas**rd goverment want to rob me of that pleasure as well and as such i now have to use white diesel. i dont smoke only drink now and then but now i struggle to pay for fuel for the boat they have even allocated a police boat to check our tanks ffs
Its probably only another 15 years of pain anyway, before an alternative fuel begins to make a real impact (wait till they start taxing water or electric at an absurd rate, then we really will be in the shit).
Not to start an argument about politics as they're both as bad as each other, and the current tory government really can't be any worse than labour, but the conservatives started the ball rolling with that stupid petrol tax/duty 'scale' thing in the early 90's, abolished in 2000.
It's painful putting it in now (petrol
), especially when they're bullshitting saying they have no frigging money.
I run 2 vans that average £5-600.00 a month EACH!!!!
Tried bio diesel but fooks up the seals in the pump!!
Gonna buy my fuel in bulk!!
Were all in shit, I get under 25mpg most of the time haha... but were just going to live with it, it's part of life now!! No point in moaning about it, weve been moaning about it for too long, and where has it got us?? If your car is too uneconomical, just get a fkin diesel... or like me, just be stupid and burn and waste money getting from A-B needlessly, albeit in luxury! And if a diesel with 40mpg+ around town and 60mpg+ on motorways is too expensive, I think that's telling you something about your finances and car ownership viability!
Lets just pay the price and get on with life!!
For once Matty, you're talking sense lol
Cars are becoming more and more expensive to run and its not going to get much cheaper, if at all.