The Yorkshire Dales village trying to tackle the rising cost of fuel

Residents of a Yorkshire Dales village who face a 24-mile (39km) round trip for fuel say they're facing a lack of availability as well as "astronomical" prices.

People in the the picturesque Swaledale village of Reeth saw their garage close permanently in 2019.

They now face a trip to Catterick Garrison for a fill-up - but want their village's petrol station to reopen.

"If we can't make a living we won't be here," said farmer Paul Brown.

With fuel prices hitting record highs, the RAC motoring group said it currently cost more than £90 to fill a family car with petrol.

The average price of a litre of petrol rose to 163.71p on Monday, and diesel also hit a fresh record of 173.68p.

Mr Brown, a third generation farmer who has worked in agriculture for almost 35 years, said: "Lambing is a busy time of year for farmers, they need all-terrain vehicles, they all run on petrol and you can't store it on farms very easily so you've got to go and find it.

"Whether you're running a tourist business or a farm or whatever, we need fuel handier than 15 miles away."

He said it was taking longer to get red diesel to run tractors, with the petrol station in Catterick often running out due to increased demand.

"The problem we have is prices are doubling for fuel and it's having a knock-on effect on feed costs going forward," he said.

"We're certainly not getting double for the product we produce, producing food is going to be a big issue, you can't import it cheaply with what's going on around the world."

Residents have formed a community group to try and get the village's petrol station open again, with some local businesses requiring fuel for multiple vehicles each week.

Paul Terry, who runs a coach and minibus business from Reeth, said: "It's absolutely astronomical at the moment, we have six coaches that go out every morning and we go through 2,500 litres a week.

"Everything for us is on a five-year contract and that won't move, we'll have to accommodate in other ways to try to make ends meet."

He said the business was managing to stay afloat due to its car maintenance service, but the cost of running the coaches kept rising.

"The community is going 10 to 15 miles for fuel every week to run their vehicles, it's hard work at the moment keeping everything running and with the fuel costs it's unbelievable."

Mike Evershed, who is part of the community group pushing for funding for a new filling station, said: "We're hoping to replace the old pumps with modern 24-hour ones, just around the corner we're hoping to have some rapid electric charging points.

"It's a continuation of things we're already doing here, communities have to get together and help themselves these days."

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