Lord Adonis weighs in on petrol shortages
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Petrol supply issues have sparked panic among Britons who have begun trying to stock up across the country, with queues outside petrol stations.A small number of petrol stations have been forced to close due to lack of supply, with others introducing restrictions.
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And now, a primary school teacher has urged people not to panic-buy petrol as it could disrupt children’s education.
Mark Cornell, from Faversham, warned if people did not return to normal petrol buying it could potentially affect children’s school lessons.
The primary school teacher told the i: “We’re actually potentially in the situation where because people are panic buying – I don’t want to be scaremongering, of course, – but basically, you could potentially be in the situation where if people don’t stop panic buying, or if there isn’t something, maybe some kind of key worker priority or something, you could end up with schools, not being able to open.
Teacher warns of panic buying petrol (Image: Getty)
People queue for petrol across the UK (Image: Getty) “Fingers crossed that, you know, it will iron itself out and people see some common sense and it will all be okay.”
He went on to urge people to be mindful of how key workers could also be impacted by unnecessary fuel purchases.
Mr Cornell continued: “It’s not just me … there’s, doctors, nurses, delivery drivers, lorries all that kind of stuff that really do need it and there’s probably some people who just don’t.”
Several petrol stations have limited fuel purchases to £30 amid fears of a petrol shortage.
READ MORE: UK fuel shortages may lead to ‘pump prices rising’, FairFuelUK warn
Petrol pumps close amid fuel crisis (Image: Getty) Trending A spokesperson for Asda said: “We encourage customers to fill up as normal as we have good fuel supply and our stations continue to receive that scheduled deliveries.”
Many of the retailer’s petrol stations have been closed temporarily to allow tankers to refill stock due to uncharacteristically high demand.
Tesco has also closed some of its petrol stations due to outages in a number of areas.
However, the retail giant reassured consumers there is no fuel shortage and supplies will be restored as quickly as possible.
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Post-Brexit trade strategy (Image: Express) A spokesperson said: “We have good availability of fuel, with deliveries arriving at our petrol filling stations across the UK every day.”
At a meeting a week ago BP is said to have told the Government the company was struggling to get fuel to its forecourts.
Companies are calling on the Government to introduce measures to make it easier to recruit HGV drivers from overseas.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps told ITV News he would “move heaven and earth” to get the situation solved.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps (Image: Getty) Addressing the panic buying of fuel, Mr Shapps said on Friday motorists should “carry on as normal”.
He told Sky News: “The advice would be to carry on as normal, and that is what BP is saying as well.”
A Downing Street spokesman said: “We have ample fuel stocks in this country and the public should be reassured there are no shortages.
“But like countries around the world we are suffering from a temporary Covid-related shortage of drivers needed to move supplies around the country.
“We’re looking at temporary measures to avoid any immediate problems, but any measures we introduce will be very strictly time-limited.
“We are moving to a high-wage, high-skilled economy and businesses will need to adapt with more investment in recruitment and training to provide long-term resilience.”
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