THE much-hyped petrol protests which led to panic buying at the pumps failed to materialise today.

There were no signs of protesters at the Shell oil refinery in Stanlow near Ellesmere Port this morning which was at the centre of protests five years ago.

Tankers were moving freely in and out of the entrances to the refinery.

The only sign of anything out of the ordinary this morning was a police officer stationed at the entrance gates.

And there were no protesters at Manchester Fuels in Trafford Park either.

Ray Holloway, from the Petrol Retailers Association, said: "Motorists simply must accept that there is going to be no disruption to their petrol and diesel supplies," he said.

"They will only exacerbate the problem by panic buying - it is self-inflicted misery."

He added: "The disruption was caused by messages that occurred earlier in the week which led to panic buying.

"We have had six days of fuel bought in just two - it is crazy." Chris Hunt from the UK

UK Petroleum Industry Association said today’s protest had proved “thankfully amazingly quiet”.

“Any protests have been fairly small, fairly low key and not obstructing drivers’ movement at all,” he said.

Andrew Spence, the farmer and haulier who was a prime mover in the 2000 protests with the People’s Fuel Lobby, had arrived there at 6am.

Handful

Mr Spence insisted he had never intended this to be a mass demonstration. He said: “We didn’t want a lot of people here, I would rather there was just a handful of us.”

He said he had kept his vow not to blockade the depot and cause disruption to the fuel supply.
He said: “Some of these people are facing financial ruin, and how can I, as an individual, stop someone with a 32-ton eight-wheeler from parking up outside, throwing the keys away and making a statement?”

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