Star comment: Some yule fuel cheer for drivers

Price cuts at the pumps have to be squeezed out of the big companies, which are generally accused of putting prices up like a rocket and bringing them down very slowly.

The economic eggheads will worry about the wider picture, as where motorists gain, the nation is losing on two fronts.

Britain is an exporter of crude oil thanks to the North Sea reserves, and so is getting less income as world prices head southwards.

Also, Chancellor George Osborne takes a very generous cut from every litre sold in the form of taxes. Falling prices mean less money coming into the Government coffers.

Even now, you can imagine him looking around for something else he can tax to make up the loss.

Back in 2012, in a panicky atmosphere generated by a threat of a strike by tanker drivers, you could briefly find yourself paying as much as 150.9p a litre for diesel in this county. Today you could pay as little as 116.9p a litre for diesel.

That's the price being charged by an independent filling station at Grindley Brook, near Whitchurch. For petrol, Dave Roberts's price is 109.9p. No wonder people are queueing to fill up.

This is a bargain and it also proves that it can be done. Mr Roberts says his profits are not being hit. His filling station has the advantage of being on a busy road but nevertheless if Mr Roberts can sell fuel at this price and still be profitable, then so can the "big boys" in the business.

If they are not matching these prices, why not?

There does seem to be an attitude that if motorists can be made to pay over the odds, then they should be made to pay over the odds.

Market forces are working in favour of motorists at the moment and look like continuing to do so. There is talk of petrol going below 110p a litre in the next fortnight. Thanks to the tax take, it would require truly massive falls in global prices to send it under £1.

When prices go up again, they may well shoot up at a dizzying rate. So make the most of these good times and shop around.