Bosses at Shropshire’s independent filling stations today hit out at a Government tax hike that could force them to stop selling petrol on rural forecourts.

It comes after Government held data revealed the number of filling stations facing closure due to increases in their rateable value. And petrol station bosses said if the increases were introduced they would be unable to compete with the larger chains.

Ludlow’s MP Philip Dunne said information received in answer to a Parliamentary question showed that 130 petrol filling stations across England will be hit by rateable value increases of over 350 per cent from April 2010.

They said they would be forced to invest in their shops rather than the petrol forecourt.

John Carbo, who own several petrol stations in Shropshire including the Wheatland Service Station in Much Wenlock, said it was bad news specifically for rural areas.

He said petrol stations worked hard to expand their shops and now they were being penalised for it.

“If we do not sell fuel we would not have this problem.

“We will be paying three or four times as much for our space as a huge supermarket and I have even heard of multiples of seven or eight times as much,” he said.

“In the long term we will not be investing in the fuel side of our business.”

David Griffiths, who owns a petrol station in Leintwardine near Ludlow, added: “The Five Yearly Business Rate Revaluation, as I understand it, was supposed to ensure each business paid a fair contribution.

“It cannot be fair if village shops are valued on a completely different basis simply because one sells fuel and one does not.

“Rural fuel stations are being penalised heavily by this government for providing fuel to an isolated community.

“Due to the business rate increase I feel many filling stations will close or at the very least decommission their tanks and remove their pumps and trade simply as a shop.

“The Government says that all properties are assessed in a similar way, that is simply not true.”

By Sophie Bignall