An independent garage which is selling petrol at some of the cheapest prices in the county says it's high time other forecourts cut prices too.

Steve Henry, owner of Mellors Garage in East Challow, Wantage, has been selling fuel 20p cheaper than other filling stations.

He said he is ‘taking a hit’ because he wants to help local people struggling with the cost of living crisis.

Mr Henry said: “The way I’m keeping prices low is by taking a hit on the price of fuel but it’s making us very, very busy.”

He said he is able to keep prices low thanks to other parts of the business, such as retail and the workshop, and mainly because he has a daily delivery.

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“I’m calculating the price with individual deliveries. Bigger garages can  take 30,000 litres but we’re an old garage and the size of our tanks mean we carry a lot less so we get it every day and that price can fluctuate and if it’s gone down we pass that on.

“We’re hoping that when this settles people remember us because we are hardly making any money out of fuel.”

He added that the ‘big boys’ should be cutting their prices too.

“If I can afford to cut it 20p they can afford 30p,” he said. “I’m just a small garage, they’ve got 1,000 depots, they are buying fuel much more cheaply. But then I don’t have shareholders to answer to.”

The RAC agreed with Mr Henry that the biggest retailers are cutting prices "too slowly".

It said big four supermarkets - Tesco, Asda, Morrisons and Sainsbury's - as well as other retailers failed to reduce prices in line with wholesale costs.

Despite wholesale petrol prices falling by 20p over the last eight weeks, the average price paid for unleaded by drivers across the UK has only dropped by 9p – all of which came off in July, analysis of RAC Fuel Watch data showed.

RAC fuel spokesman Simon Williams said: “July has been an unnecessarily tough month for drivers due to the big four supermarkets’ unwillingness to cut their prices to a more a reasonable level, reflecting the consistent and significant reductions in the wholesale cost of petrol and diesel."

He said several of the supermarkets only finally lowered prices recently.

“As it was, we saw independent retailers leading the charge with fairer pump prices appearing all around the country which eventually forced the supermarkets to finally implement a more substantial cut late last Friday afternoon (29 July)."

 

 

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