Fuel In Rural Areas

[Rolebama]

Those of you who live in rural areas, should maybe read this:
http://www.rac.co.uk/news-advice/mot...p-slams-hikes/
Although I live in the suburbs, I buy most of my fuel in rural areas as there are very rarely queues.

[ficklejade]

Thanks, Rolebama.

Far too angry about the cavalier way rural areas are being treated to respond just now. FJ

[Snowball]

Funny how all these public sector administration changes always result in agony for Joe Public and more revenue for government agencies. Should we be surprised; there are more fiddlers in government than in the Halle Orchestra, and the some.

[wagolynn]

Re rural petrol, firstly on petrol price I can see two options, we could, rather like insurance, pool the delivery charge (which is the usual excuse for high price in rural areas) and have a national wholesale price. Or we can continue as we are and say, tough, it is the cost for living in the country.
As to the business rates thing, the money has to come from somewhere. Unless I am mistaken, the current business rates system came into being in Thatcher,s era, as part of the son of poll tax mess. Taxation taken away from here has to be raised in other places. Unless, we can get Doctors, Nurses, Road sweepers, Solders, Police etc. to work for nothing.

[ficklejade]

I know of one such rural garage/repair shop and grocery store that is going to give up; this will mean locals having to travel over 40 miles to fuel up. Another, more local, community has had public money put in and raised a load of cash locally to do the upgrade for their local fuelling station - again, if this failed, it would be over 40 miles to the next filling station.

If independents go, then more and more people will be held to ransom by the big guys as they won't want to be interested in lifeline services for rural communities (the only possible exception might be Gleaner, who have been supporting some rural filling stations and who are pretty reasonable on price).
Of course, the numpties haven't thought out that the more miles a motorist regularly has to drive to fill up will only add to the dreaded emissions!

As for business rates, as far as I'm aware, these all go into one big pot and are shared out amongst Councils according to a formula that "only three people in the country can work out"! Carrying on with the business rates scenario, closing filling stations in rural areas, where they are often few and far between anyway, will have a detrimental effect on the tourism that many areas depend upon. Fewer tourists, less income, tourist businesses closing, less business rates income - it could be the Highland Clearances all over again!

Yes, many do choose (or are born to it) to live and work in the countryside so you could say, tough. Or, as Wagolynn suggested, we could have a universal price for fuel types. If our political parties thought that out, in terms of revenue and environmental considerations, this might have the benefit of fewer urban journeys by car (income direct to Councils via public transport), but not by much given the public's disillusionment with public transport - nevertheless a small plus point on reducing emissions. Add to that a uniform fuel price would be good for businesses and tourism - known cost - and sustain income from business rates, by sustaining businesses. Ok, living on an island, I guess most of us would be prepared to pay a premium for fuel for ferry costs - these are known and can be justified.

[wagolynn]

Hey Fj, which planet are you on; political parties thinking!

[smudger]

Originally Posted by wagolynn

Hey Fj, which planet are you on; political parties thinking!

Yea! If that happened, we would see common sense coming back into fashion.

[wagolynn]

Originally Posted by smudger

Yea! If that happened, we would see common sense coming back into fashion.

Hope springs eternal...

[ficklejade]

Originally Posted by wagolynn

Hey Fj, which planet are you on; political parties thinking!

Yes, I know - it's wishful thinking!!

As for a different planet, well, living in a rural area, especially the more remote ones, is almost like it and it set to become worse!