Rocketing fuel costs may hit £8 a gallon

Hard-pressed motorists could be driven off the road and, with fuel set to rocket to £8 a gallon, cars will become the preserve of the rich, motoring organisations warned today.

The crisis in Libya and the Middle East could cause the cost of crude oil to double at a time when diesel and unleaded prices are already being described by motoring organisation the RAC as "unacceptable".

The effects will be felt on the forecourts within weeks, leading to an estimated 5p a litre increase in petrol prices by April.

It would mean filling up the average family car could cost more than £100, according to the RAC which predicted more people will be forced to stop using their cars.

Peter Roberts, the boss of Telford-based motoring campaign group the Drivers' Alliance, said today people travelling to work are seeing transport costs increasing significantly above wage inflation.

"Working people can be paying £30 a month or more extra on their fuel bills so they will be looking to recover this in wages.

"When people need to travel to find work, the high cost of fuel discourages people from taking jobs.

"The high cost of fuel will price people off the road and we will be left with roads for the rich."

Mr Roberts added: "It was worth remembering that, per litre of fuel, only about 47p goes on fuel and the rest is tax."

And he said it would be "deeply unfair" if the government increase duty again in April with another £0.05p of hardship for hard pressed families.

"When spending on the roads is only some £6 billion and motoring related taxation is in excess of £52 billion, the hard pressed motorist rightly feels aggrieved when confronted with potholed roads and roads unfit for purpose."

Amid concerns the unrest in Libya may soon spread to Saudi Arabia and Algeria, the cost of oil shot up again on Thursday to 119 dollars a barrel, its highest level for two-and-a-half years.

The AA has warned that the government was under intense pressure to scrap the impending 5p-a-litre rise in fuel duty due on April 1.

A spokesman said: "The motorist is going to have to brace himself for a storm.

"Prices are already starting to creep up and this puts intense pressure on the government to scrap the fuel duty increase.

"They will already be getting significantly higher VAT from the higher prices on the forecourts anyway."