Drivers facing petrol ‘postcode lottery’ with fuel costing £17 MORE if you live in the wrong town
Markfield in Leicestershire is the most expensive area in the UK for unleaded
DRIVERS who live in the wrong town face paying up to £17 more to fill up the tank as the UK enters the most extreme 'postcode lottery' in years.
Fuel prices in petrol stations across the country have been compared to reveal nationwide divides - sometimes between neighbouring towns and villages.
The AA said the gap is wider between busy towns and remote parts of Britain because retailers in richer areas think drivers "can afford to take the hit" and charge them more.
A spokesman for the breakdown firm said the "postcode lottery" has reached a scale never seen before.
Part of the problem is that in quieter corners of the country the cost of transporting fuel is typically higher and there is less competition.
Markfield in Leicestershire is the most expensive place in the UK for unleaded.
The average pump price across local retailers in the town is 134.9p per litre, according to analysis by petrolprices.com.
Leigh in Greater Manchester is the cheapest area in the country for petrol, with an average cost just 112.8p-a-litre.
Looking at individual forecourts, the station offering the best price in Britain is in Taunton, Somerset, with 108.9p per litre.
By comparison, the most expensive individual retailer is in Gretna, in Dumfries and Galloway, where unleaded costs a staggering 139.9 per litre.
The 31p difference between the two stations in Taunton and Gretna equates to an extra £17.05 to fill up a typical 55-litre family car.
The average price across all petrol pumps in Gretna is 131p, making it the fifth most expensive place to refuel.
Motorists will be more mystified to learn that the gulf in prices can be felt in towns just a few miles away from each other, or even at stations owned by the same company.
Separate analysis given to The Sun Online by AA reveals that there's an "unfair" 13p-a-litre difference between Sainsbury's stations in the north and south of the UK.
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Luke Bosdet, AA's fuel price spokesman said: "The pump price lottery is at a scale I have never seen before. Perhaps Sainsbury’s thinks the good folk of Liphook and other places in the South are well-heeled drivers who can afford to take the hit.
"Perhaps they think the good folk of Liphook [East Hampshire] and other places in the South are well-heeled drivers who can afford to take the hit.
"But those missing out will include the low-paid, such as youngsters starting their first job or care staff driving between elderly clients, and then there are the higher-mileage rural workers."
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