Yahoo News Fuel crisis: Heathrow petrol station closes toilets to stop ‘desperate’ drivers
The manager of a petrol station near Heathrow Airport said toilets had to be closed to stop “desperate” motorists waiting for fuel.
London has been hit with the brunt of petrol shortage as up to 90 per cent of outlets in the British capital have run out of petrol and diesel.
Long queues had begun to build at the petrol station near Heathrow Airport, despite a 4am delivery on Sunday, the unnamed manager said.
The station had to close its doors to customers and reopened at 7am while staff handled the frantic behaviour of drivers.
One driver arrived with a “truckload” of large canisters for filling but the motorist was asked to leave the station, the manager said.
The manager said there was “no guarantee” of when the next delivery would be.
Spare fuel has been kept at the station for people working in emergency services and others in desperate need of fuel.
The manager added he “felt sorry” for members of cabin crew arriving in the UK unaware of the panic over fuel who were unable to fill up their vehicles.
Environment Secretary George Eustice said there were no plans at the moment to use the army to drive petrol tankers.
Reports have been swirling Boris Johnson was considering deploying the troops to deliver fuel to tackle the shortage crisis.
Mr Eustice said: “The most important thing is that people just buy petrol as they normally would. There isn’t a shortage. There does come a time when things settle down, people get used to it and return to life as normal again.
“The quicker people do that the better. The only reason we don’t have petrol in forecourts is that people are buying petrol when they don’t need it.”
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