Drivers queue more than a mile for UK’s ‘cheapest petrol station’ at 164.9p a litre

BRITAIN'S cheapest petrol stations saw mile long tailbacks yesterday as motorists queued to fill up at 164.9p a litre - 20p less than the national average.

Drivers waited from 6am to use the bargain pumps at a department store in Newton Abbot, Devon.

Outlet Trago Mills deployed security guards to marshall snaking queues at the filling station, as motorists waited over an hour.

The Shell filling station has undercut the national average of 190.65p for unleaded and 198.42p for diesel, according to the RAC fuel watch.

The average driver at the Newton Abbot department store paid less than £100 to fill up, paying 164.9p for unleaded 179.9p a litre for diesel.

Meanwhile at Texaco Lime service station in Walkden, Gtr Manchester prices were slashed sparking a queue of desperate drivers.

Some brought along jerry cans to take as much as they could, paying 185.9p for unleaded and 167.7p a litre for diesel.

It comes as fuel campaign groups have slammed oil companies and retailers for the snail pace drop in forecourt prices.

Brian Gregory from the Alliance of British Drivers told The Sun: "These wholesalers and supermarkets are making stonking profits and these must be passed onto British drivers who are being fleeced at the forecourts.

"They must be regulated to stop this blatant profiteering, there is currently no way of pressuring retailers to reduce prices to a reasonable amount."

The AA said high petrol prices are partly down to supermarkets refusing to pass on the drop in wholesale petrol prices to the customer.

Luke Bodset of the AA told The Sun: "Supermarkets who are taking the savings and offering them in store and not at the pumps.

"As fuel wholesale prices reduce then supermarkets should bring down their petrol prices, which would in turn make other fuel stations bring down their prices as well.