There's something slightly curious about petrol prices which gives rise to further confirmations that the motorist really is being 'ripped off' (Evening Press, August 17).

In a market which is supposed to be fiercely competitive there's practically no competition.

On Sunday my wife and I went out for a run in the car to Wensleydale. A round trip of over 200 miles. A chance, you would think, to sample the competitiveness of the petrol supply industry at work.

After filling up our car with unleaded at the Inner Space Station Filling station on York Business Park at 72.9p a litre we set out to enjoy our trip.

However, as we drove along through Harrogate, across to Skipton and up to Ingleton, I noticed that almost every filling station we passed, no matter of what size or which petrol company, were all charging the very same 72.9p a litre for unleaded petrol! Why?

In fact the only two filling stations charging a lower price was a Thrust station at Brompton in Wensleydale and a Spot station at North Stainley near Ripon, both of which, despite their rural locations and smaller outlets, found it possible to charge just 71.9p a litre for unleaded.

Is it a pure coincidence that both these brands of petrol are from smaller, independent distributors? I have just rung around all of the largest filling stations in York and they are all charging 72.9p - Tesco, Asda, Inner Space Stations - even the family-owned Pulleyn station at Wigginton Road which is usually keen to beat the 'big boys' on price. It seems uncomfortably like a cosy stitch-up of the marketplace by the major oil distributors and against the motorist.

Peter Stanhope,

Grange Close,

Skelton, York.

...With reference to your editorial A Price Hike Too Far (August 17), I looked in vain for mention of the real culprit, namely Blair's government.

Why do you have to slavishly repeat the spin doctors' output from Downing Street?

We have had three budgets since the 1997 election each with massive increases in petrol tax.

So much so, that the tax take from each pound spent on petrol at the pumps is now 87p, leaving the oil companies 13p with which to pay for exploration, extraction, shipping costs around the world, refining, marketing the product and pay the retailer.

The price of oil had been falling since the last election, until in the autumn 1998 the lowest price reached was $9.40 for a barrel.

This week it reached $20.90 a barrel and it is these prices along with tax increases that are now coming through at the pumps.

This government promised before the election not to increase taxes, yet one of the heaviest tax increases has been on motor fuel. Price reductions at the petrol pumps due to the world price reduction of a barrel of oil have been replaced by government tax increases giving the impression that petrol prices have remained stable. That's tax increases by stealth. Oh yes, Mr Blair, you can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but youcannot fool all the people all the time.

Jeff Henderson,

Moor Lane,

Haxby, York.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.