MOTORISTS in Huntingdonshire are likely to feel the pinch when they fill up this year with fuel prices in the region higher than the national average, The Hunts Post can reveal.

MOTORISTS in Huntingdonshire are likely to feel the pinch more than other areas when they fill up this year with fuel prices in the district higher than the national average, The Hunts Post can reveal.

With fuel costs expected to hit record highs this year, prices in Huntingdonshire are already nearly two pence more expensive that average per litre of petrol, at 134.1p, and half a pence more for diesel, at 141.2p, according to fuel price comparison website PetrolPrices.com

Applegreen Petrogas’ Spaldwick Service Station, was providing the cheapest petrol in the area at 129.9p per litre, and was the only station offering petrol lower than Britain’s average price of 132.34p.

Motorists in London are paying 1p more for petrol and 0.5p for diesel on average than Huntingdonshire, but towns with Asdas, which has a national pricing policy, have the cheapest fuel available at 128.7p for unleaded and 136.7p for diesel.

The most expensive fuels in Britain are found on Scottish Isles with diesel reaching 154.9p a litre.

Applegreen, which took over the running of the Texaco station in October last year, also boasts the area’s cheapest diesel at 139.8p per litre, saving customers more than two pence a litre than Huntingdonshire’s most expensive diesel found in St Ives and St Neots.

Tracy Harrison, manager of Spaldwick Services, said that she had seen more people visit the petrol station since the Applegreen takeover.

“Quite a lot of people drive past and stop because we’re cheap, but we’re finding more people seeing our prices on the internet then coming to buy fuel,” she said.

The AA blamed petrol stations in rural locations, such as Huntingdonshire’s highest petrol price of 136.9p per litre at Robinson’s in Kimbolton, for the high average price in the region.

A spokesman said: “In rural areas such as Huntingdonshire, fuel prices can be two to four pence more expensive than the national average which really angers motorists. There is a perception that supermarkets have the cheapest fuel but this is evaporating and some independent petrol stations, and we hope for more, are undercutting prices to get more customers.”

A Petrolprices.com spokesman has seen a rise in visitors to its website in the last few years, she said: “People have started to shop around to get the best deal because they realise it is quite important as prices are so high at the moment.”