This is how petrol stations are looking in Sunderland as Government and AA urge people not to ‘panic buy’

Across Wearside on Monday, September 27, petrol stations appeared to be quiet, with no more than a few motorists queuing for fuel at any one time.

It comes as the Environment Secretary, George Eustice, said there was not a shortage of fuel and called on motorists to stop “panic buying” petrol and return to their normal pattern of purchasing.

Petrol stations on Chester Road, Ryhope Road, Harbour View and Morrisons at Seaburn all looked to be reasonably quiet on Monday morning.

Shell, ExxonMobile and other fuel industry bodies have insisted there is no “national shortage of fuel” and that the pressures on supply were the result of “temporary spikes in customer demand”.

Mr Eustice blamed motorists for filling up when they did not need to, saying: “The most important thing is that people buy petrol as they normally would.

“There isn’t a shortage. There have been some shortages of HGV drivers getting petrol to forecourts but actually that is quite limited.

“The cause of these current problems is that panic-buying episode and the most important thing is for people to start buying petrol as they normally would.

“There does come a point – as we saw during a previous episode of panic-buying during the pandemic on food – where things settle down and people get used to it, and return to life as normal again.

“The sooner people do that the better. The only reason we don’t have petrol on the forecourts is that people are buying petrol they don’t need.”

The panic buying spree was sparked last week after concerns from BP were leaked that the shortage of lorry drivers could impact upon its ability to keep up with fuel deliveries.