WINTER OF DISCONTENT?

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CHAOS reigned at garage fore- courts again yesterday as motorists continued to panic-buy petrol – despite assurances that there is no shortage of fuel.

Desperate drivers ignored Government pleas for calm as they queued at stations, causing tailbacks up and down the country. In response to the escalating crisis, BP, Esso, Texaco and Shell last night limited drivers to £30 of fuel.

The move came after shocking photographs showed one woman filling six jerry cans and police having to marshal a filling station in Northwood, North-West London. Tempers also boiled over on the forecourt of an Esso station near Chichester, West Sussex, where four men brawled on Friday night.

Many drivers seemed to be flouting the guidelines on how much petrol you can transport in a car, with police able to step in if they deem it hazardous.

Amid the chaos, industry figures sought to reassure motorists that there was no fuel shortage and said fewer than 100 of the 8,350 filling stations – about 1 per cent – had been forced to close.

AA president Edmund King said there was ‘plenty of fuel at the source’ and no need to stock up. But his pleas failed to dissuade thousands of drivers from queuing bumper-tobumper outside stations. Brian Madderson, chairman of the Petrol Retailers’ Association, warned that panicbuying would mean ‘a lot of people are going to go without fuel’. He added: ‘ This could be emergency services, it could be deliveries to supermarkets, it could be NHS workers, doctors, firemen, people who have really serious jobs that need 24hour requirements for fuel.’

The desperation was summed up by London-based paramedic Shelley Lancey, who wrote on Facebook: ‘For the people who have fuelled up their cars “just in case”, there will be patients who won’t be attended to as paramedics will not be able to get to work, ambulance tanks will be empty and nurses and doctors won’t be able to get to hospitals.

‘My colleague waited in a petrol queue for over an hour in a first response vehicle last night to refuel the ambulance car. The net result: he was unavailable to attend very

ill patients.’ Former social worker Jackie Cohen said her 75-year-old husband Raymond missed his emergency A&E appointment after they were trapped in traffic queuing outside an Esso garage in Barnet, North London.

The nationwide rush to fill up was triggered when BP and Esso said a shortage of tanker drivers was affecting deliveries.