Fuel crisis: Police respond to public order and traffic issues at petrol stations

Sussex Police are urging drivers to “act responsible” as officers continue to monitor the situation across the county.

A spokeswoman said there had been no impact on the force’s ability to respond to incidents despite many pumps running dry.

Queues formed at petrol stations across the country

She added: “We continue to urge the public to act sensibly and only purchase fuel if they need to.

“We continue to monitor the situation with partner agencies through our local resilience forum and have pre-prepared plans in place to assist with refuelling operational vehicles so there has been no impact on our response ability thus far.

“We have been responding to fuel stations for either public order or traffic issues but currently we have not seen a spike in demand with no dedicated operations being put in place.

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  “Individual incidents will be responded to in line with our threat risk and harm principles.”

The South East Coast Ambulance Service (Secamb) has also urged drivers to stop panic buying fuel amid fears long queues could cause emergency teams to get stuck.

A spokesman said: “We urge the public to be sensible, only buy the fuel they require and, as ever, be aware when driving of any blue light vehicle looking to progress through traffic.”

George O’Reilly, business safety manager at East Sussex Fire and Rescue (ESFRS) has urged drivers to “return to normal purchasing patterns” and to only buy fuel when it is needed.

He said: “The simple solution is for the public to return to normal purchasing patterns, and this can be done by only buying fuel when it is needed, in the quantity needed and to refrain from stockpiling fuel.

“This stockpiling is extremely dangerous and is likely to delay any return to normal.”

The government announced on Monday it was putting troops on standby to drive petrol tankers as filling stations in many parts of the country continued to run dry.

But with anger building at the long queues faced by motorists, some senior Tories urged the government to go further and start actively using the military to restore public confidence.

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