NI petrol retailers seek price differential changes

Petrol retailers in Northern Ireland are to warn the UK's Chancellor of the Exchequer today that more filling stations could close and more jobs will be lost unless the price differential with stations in the South is addressed.

Representatives of Northern Ireland's Petrol Retailers Association will join former SDLP leader John Hume at a meeting with Gordon Brown and the Economic Secretary to the Treasury John Healey in London.

They will express concern at the much higher fuel costs north of the Irish border and taxation levels which are leading many Northern Ireland consumers to head south.

As they prepare to take their case to Mr Brown, Mr Hume hoped the British government would take on board their concerns.

“The price gap between north and south is 25p per litre for petrol and 30p for diesel,” the Foyle MP noted.

“The tax element of the petrol price is 81% in the north compared with 71% in the south.

“This has led to the closure of 120 filling stations in the north in the last four years – particularly in Derry, Tyrone and Fermanagh.

“We have outlined these problems to the Treasury in recent months and we hope today’s meeting with the Chancellor and the Economic Secretary will produce a positive response.”

Mr Hume said he was concerned for the future of the province’s petrol industry.

He said he would tell Gordon Brown the industry was in serious decline in border areas and that “unless he acted positively more filling stations would close and more jobs would be lost”.