Moto Washington Services defends £2 per litre fuel costs on A1(M)

Fuel prices have topped £2 a litre at a service station on the A1(M).

The BP garage at Moto Washington Services, in Birtley, Gateshead, was charging drivers 202.9p per litre for petrol and 204.9p per litre for diesel.

Although the site is BP branded, the pump prices are set by the service station operator Moto Hospitality.

A spokesperson for Moto Hospitality said the price included "several elements" including oil price and tax.

"We recognise fuel prices are higher than customers would like," the spokesperson added.

They said wholesale oil prices had gone up by about 6% in the past week, and the company had held off passing the rise on to customers in recent days "in the hope that prices would dip".

"However, no such price drop has occurred, and we have now had to start reflecting some, but not all of the increased wholesale costs in our forecourt prices," they said.

Paul Robinson, a Newcastle-based taxi driver, said fuel prices were "astronomical" at the moment and it was having a "massive effect" on his business.

"We're paying too much, prices are going up on a daily basis, it might be 4p rise one day then a 6p increase the next," he said.

"Our meters used to start at £2.40 now it's £4.00 - and I'm scared that's going to put people off using a taxi."

Charlie Adams, from JR Adams Haulage which operates 50 vehicles from its depots in Gateshead and Newcastle, described the fuel hikes as "desperately worrying".

Mr Adams - the fourth generation of his family in the haulage industry - said: "We've never had this situation before.

"We're buying in diesel at up to £1.54 a litre and using about 30,000 litres a week and unless we top this up we'll soon be running at a loss and it's showing no signs of slowing down.

"I honestly don't know what can be done about it, without passing it on to the customers, who are of course worried about rising costs for everything else themselves."

Reacting to the increasing prices at Moto Washington, Phil, a BBC Radio Newcastle listener, said: "I have no idea where they dream it up from, it's gone up from £1.99 per litre after staying at that price for about three weeks.

"Unfortunately the North East seems to be the dearest as far as I know."

Fellow driver Steven branded the charges "absolutely disgraceful".

It comes amid news the average cost of filling a typical family car with petrol could exceed £100 for the first time.

Data firm Experian Catalist said a litre of petrol cost an average of 180.7p on Tuesday, an increase of 2.2p compared to the previous day.

Government figures showed the average price of a litre of petrol at UK forecourts on Monday was a record 175.6p, up 6.6p from 169.0p seven days earlier.

Average diesel prices increased by 3.7p per litre over the same period, reaching 185.3p.

That was the largest weekly increase for both fuels since March.

RAC fuel spokesman Simon Williams said: "With analysts predicting that oil will average 135 US dollars a barrel for the rest of this year, drivers need to brace themselves for average fuel prices rocketing to £2 a litre, which would mean a fill-up would rise to an unbelievable £110.

"The wholesale price of diesel is fast approaching 160p a litre which, when you add 7p retailer margin and 20% VAT, would take the pump price over the £2 mark.

"We strongly urge the government to take drastic action to help soften the impact for drivers from these never-before-seen pump prices."

The Treasury cut fuel duty by 5p per litre in March.

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