Garages across the area are running out of fuel.
The Hills garage on Scotland Road in Penrith had to turn customers away today and Keswick’s two petrol stations had run out of diesel.
However, oil companies, including Shell, ExxonMobil and Greenergy, have said that there is no petrol shortage, saying the pressures on supply were being caused by temporary spikes in customer demand – not a national shortage of fuel.
The Petrol Retailers Association said today that as many as two-thirds of its membership of nearly 5,500 independent outlets were now out of fuel, with the rest of them “partly dry and running out soon”.
It is has been blamed on the shortage of HGV drivers across the UK that is causing the issue – and despite calls, the Government said there were no plans to call in the army to deliver fuel.
