Diesel prices are creeping back towards record levels with some Shropshire and Mid Wales motorists already forking out for fuel priced above the national average, new figures showed today.

According to the AA, the price of diesel at the pumps now averages 142.9p a litre – just shy of the record of 143.04p set last May. And some Shropshire forecourts were yesterday charging above average prices.

Drivers in Telford and Albrighton have seen prices differing by more than four pence.

BP in Wellington Road in Albrighton was yesterday charging 143.9p for a litre of diesel, compared with Tesco at Wrekin Retail Park in Wellington, which was charging 139.9p.

Shell garages in Stirchley and in Holyhead Road, both in Telford, were selling diesel at 140.9p.

At Stan’s Supermarket in St Martins, near Oswestry, diesel was being sold for 140.9p a litre.

Rutters Garage in High Town, Bridgnorth, the Esso garage in Cann Hall Road in Low Town, Bridgnorth, and Texaco in Wem were all charging 142.9p a litre for diesel yesterday.

In Mid Wales diesel in Welshpool was 142.9p per litre at the town’s Tesco forecourt yesterday.

Motorist Carol Davies, from Llanfair Caereinion, said: “It is almost that we have become used to these prices, but they are disgusting really.”
Brian Lloyd, from Guilsfield said: “We will never see the day where it is a pound a litre again.

“People working at forecourts should wear little masks when they take the money off you, because the Government is robbing us.”

The AA said over the past month, the average price of diesel has gone up 0.8p a litre, while the average price of petrol has risen 1.46p to 135p a litre.

This is still 2.43p off the petrol record high, but since the start of the year the monthly fuel bill for a two-car family has risen £5.84.

Northern Ireland has the dearest average diesel at 143.5p a litre while the cheapest is in northern England and in Yorkshire and Humberside at 142.3p.

AA president Edmund King said: “The UK’s rate of inflation may have fallen but that comes as cold comfort for consumers and businesses that depend on their vehicles and see pump prices nearing last year’s records.”