'Dump the pump', motorists urged

Petrol forecourts could remain empty on Tuesday

Petrol stations throughout the UK are preparing for a possible boycott by motorists fed up with the price of fuel.

All of Britain's 27 million car drivers are being urged to take part in a 24-hour boycott of garage forecourts.

The campaign has been organised by Essex website designer Garry Russell who wants drivers to boycott pumps on Tuesday and then on every subsequent Monday to keep the high price of fuel in the public eye.

"If we sit back and do nothing then before too long we will have the £5 gallon," he said.

The Conservatives have launched their own campaign against rising fuel prices, using advertising hoardings on petrol forecourts to depict Chancellor Gordon Brown as "the greatest highway robber since Dick Turpin".

If we sit back and do nothing then before too long we will have the £5 gallon

Garry Russell

Mr Russel believes the Dump the Pump campaign has already been responsible for a spate of price-cutting by supermarkets Tesco, Sainsbury's and Morrisons with prices dropping below 80p a litre.

BP and Shell have also slashed their prices.

But retailers denied the move was an attempt to head off Tuesday's protest.

Ray Holloway, of the Petrol Retailers Association, said: "The fact is that the cost of the price of petrol over the past three weeks has fallen by almost 30%."

Motoring groups and environmental organisations have expressed reservations about the planned protest.

'Cynical stunt'

An AA spokesman said: "If the government don't know by now what people feel about prices, they will never know."

Environmental group Friends of the Earth dismissed the protest as a "cynical stunt".

They said it would "do nothing to help rural communities, poorer households or the environment".

But Mr Russell thinks the campaign is justified.

"If we paid as much tax on certain items as we do on petrol then a first-class stamp would cost £1.13, a cinema ticket would be nearly £22 and a loaf of bread would be £1.58," he said.

Garry Russell organised the campaign via his website

Tax makes up more than 76% of the pump price.

It now costs £50 to fill the tank of a Ford Mondeo.

Mr Russell organised the protest mainly via the internet and his website www.boycott-the-pumps.com.

It has had nearly 250,000 visitors.

"We have touched a nerve here," Mr Russell told BBC Two's Newsnight programme.

"We are dealing with the motor car, it's an emotive passionate subject. It's our ultimate expression of freedom.

"That's why we are so passionate behind this internet-driven web campaign because the internet gets into people's homes," he said.

Lorry protest

Lorry drivers are planning to blockade Dover on Tuesday to coincide with the petrol station boycott.

Hauliers say they will operate a "rolling roadblock" along the M20 from Ashford to Dover driving at 5mph.

Tim Smith, of the Hauliers and Farmers Association, which is organising the protest, said haulage firms faced ruin because European drivers were able to undercut them by using cheap fuel.

"European truck drivers are doing our work and we can't compete," he said.

"East European drivers' operating costs can be £800 a week less than ours and no-one on Earth can compete with that.

"We apologise profusely for the inconvenience, but at the end of the day we need to highlight the problem of British haulage firms going to the wall," he said.