It’s been reported this month that supermarkets are overcharging customers in rural areas for fuel, as petrol prices reach their highest level for six months.

According to the AA, the cost of petrol in the UK reached 149.13p, the dearest since early February. Meanwhile, in some areas diesel, cost 150p a litre for the first time since May.

The AA has said that drivers in rural areas are paying, on average between 10p and 15p for a litre of petrol at supermarkets, despite scrutiny from MPs and the competition watchdog.  It said that many drivers in rural areas were paying about 145p a litre, compared with 135p or less at supermarkets in urban areas.

Last month, RSN members the Forest of Dean District Council passed a motion to write to the Secretary of State for Energy, Grant Shapps (Con, Welwyn Hatfield) to ask him to “request fuel companies consider rural area pricing policies that, while allowing the vendor to earn a decent living, ensures that petrol and diesel pricing does not discriminate against rural communities such as the Forest of Dean.”

Bringing the motion at the Full Council meeting, Cllr Tim Gwilliam said:

“Rural people rely on the car, more so than people in cities and urban areas and it is only fair that we should be paying the same sort of price as those in those areas.”