Panic buyers start to strip supermarkets By Sandra Barwick

Blair pledge to beat blockades

PANIC buyers who had helped to drain thousands of filling stations across the country turned their attention to supermarkets yesterday and began to fill their baskets with perishable goods. Spar, the grocery chain which has 2,700 stores in Britain, said there had been a 300 per cent increase in the sales of bread, milk and canned goods in South Wales, one of the areas worst hit by fuel blockades. A spokesman said they were working hard to restock the stores, and Tesco, which reported that it was running low on bread in four stores, said that it would also be re-filling its shelves.

London commuter stations were packed, and in badly hit areas, including South Wales, Yorkshire and north-east England roads were quieter than usual, as drivers conserved fuel for essential journeys, and some businesses were forced to turn away custom. Scott Owen, an undertaker in Llandudno, North Wales, said: "We can't do long distance funerals because of the risk of not having enough fuel to get back."

Motorists across Britain ignored pleas not to indulge in the panic-buying of fuel, queuing in their hundreds by any petrol station still open. Richard Freeman, an AA policy spokesman, said he felt that that some consumers were deliberately flouting the Government's pleas not to fill their tanks.

"A lot of drivers are enjoying the situation of giving the Government a bloody nose. They felt they haven't been able to do anything individually but they've been feeling very angry about it. The Government has woefully underestimated the level of feeling drivers have."

But many of those at the pumps said that they were filling up because they were dependent on their cars for their livelihoods. Mark Roberts, 35, a doctor from Bramhall, set out at 7.15am yesterday to join a quarter of a mile long queue outside Sainsbury's petrol station at Cheadle Royal, Stockport, Manchester.

He said he needed to travel between four hospitals each day. "How do I get to clinics and see patients if I can't get any fuel? It's vital that I can get to where I'm needed."

Chris Gac, 21, a joiner from Bolton, Lancashire, said: "I do 70 miles a day. By the time it gets to the end of the week I could be out of a job. If this goes on, and I can't do my job, I'll go broke."

Queues and frustration brought out the worst in some drivers, with fights reported on service station forecourts. Christopher Priestley, an employee at a Shell garage in Leeds said he saw violence just before fuel ran out. He said: "It has become a tragic situation - fighting over petrol. Two men pulled up at a super unleaded pump. One was punched as they fought to get there first."

Customers were buying as much fuel as they could, despite fire safety officers' warnings against stockpiling. Mark Lewis, the skipper of the Dart fuel barge in Dartmouth harbour, Devon, said customers had "been coming on board with 10-litre and 25-litre containers. One chap was so desperate to get home to Birmingham he bought 106 litres".

One driver was turned away from a garage at Colesbourne, near Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, after asking to fill a 40-gallon water butt. Another motorist from Skipton, North Yorkshire, was taken to hospital with burns to his back after fuel he had stockpiled at home went up in flames, setting fire to his kitchen.

Other motorists were taking the lesser risk of filling the tanks of cars which should run on unleaded fuel with leaded, risking hundreds of pounds of damage to their catalytic converters. The shortages caused difficulties to businesses and organisations across the country. William Dolman, the coroner at Hornsey, north London, cancelled all inquests until further notice.

He said petrol shortages meant that officers and witnesses found it difficult to get to court. He added: "It is possible that within a few days my pathologists will not be able to attend to carry out post mortem examinations." It meant that bereaved relatives might not be able to make funeral arrangements.

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said that its work could be affected by the fuel crisis. Sun Valley, Britain's biggest poultry processing plant, said that eight million chickens and a million turkeys faced starving to death. Fuel for the boilers which produce the steam needed to mix up the poultry food for the plant in Hereford is expected to run out this evening.

The only words of optimism came from cross-Channel operators, who recommended motorists to take their cars on a ferry to fill them up in the country which set the crisis in motion - France.

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-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), September 12, 2000