A 17% rise in European wholesale petrol prices since late January is threatening to push UK average pump prices above the July 2008 record, warns the AA, which is calling on the Government to investigate the sudden surge.

This will hurt even more from April...A weaker pound is aggravating the potential for price rises, with 120p a litre possible - even before the Government is scheduled on 1 April to add 3p in fuel duty and VAT on to the cost of petrol and diesel.

At the weekend, the AA reports that average UK petrol prices rose to 115.93p a litre and, compared to late January/early February prices, the price of a tank of petrol could increase by £4.

"The UK is barely out of recession yet petrol prices threaten to rise to record prices seen during the boom of 2008 - shortly before the collapse into recession," says Edmund King, the AA's president.

"The AA believes the Government should look at what is behind it. With refiners in Europe closing sites or looking to sell them, soaring wholesale prices could drive down demand and weaken the sector further.

"In the AA's opinion, the easiest and quickest stabiliser would be to freeze the fuel duty increase on 1 April."

[From Pistonheads]

Im a bit dubvous about filling the t4 with it though, it does clean all the crap out the tank & requires more fuel filter changes.

Fuel is as Stew says only the start, of a long line of price hikes that start with this and simply go on and on, everything lets face it revovles round fuel nothing in todays world happens without fuel, and that goes for almost everything we need to live, work and play, so what is the alternatives you ask ?

Good question as Rob says Bio fuels [your T4 i think could run with adaption pretty well on bio no probs as could most modern desels] but require adaption at x cost to you plus bio is not as cheap now as it formerly was, as bio fuel makers have cottoned on to this coming take a look today its a different better organised world they live in no longer a cottage industry there, so then there is LPG with all it's limitations and also rising costs involved back in 1978 a friend had his Volvo 240 pertol 2ltr converted to run on LPG an unknown fuel sorce for vehicles in those days and it ran well for 10 yrs with him followed by at least another 10 with the guy i sold it to for him, it was then a cheap alternative but alas same issue our gov and the manufacturers have upted the costs and its getting dearer all the time sadly as it might of been a contender [the only issue then i beleive they have now sorted was with the gas there was no upper cylinder lub, although i do beleive that has been sorted by them fitting a drip pipe for this use] so we are left with Batteries which so far are to big, to bulky and so far not practical in terms of milages attainable hyrogen cells is also a non starter so far leaving us no alternatives other than petrol & deisel that is it, take it or leave it.......even if it rockets to the scary heights that some predict of £10 a gallon we would have no alternative but to keep using it, that is if we want to still drive out beloved vehicles....

I do think and have proven that we as a nation depend on our vehicles far far to much as it goes, many guilty of taking them everywhere, me included [although like many at times i have to due to my location and health] when the fuel crisis hit us previously we simply paniced like all at the time then i calmed down and realised that we didn't need to have as much fuel as we usually would of if only we planned our journeys better which is exactly what we did, instead of jumping out the 24 mile round trip to our local supermarket for bread and milk, we would go in a circle and do as many things as possible in that journey, set doctors, dentists and such appointments to coincide with a once weekly trip instead of at time 3 times weekly trip....

I am all for protesting by proving that actually we dont need to use nearly as much fuel as we do anyway, which is both legal, peaceful and will hurt em where it hurts by dropping the rrevenue gained by not selling so no vat from the fuel i don't use if you see what i mean....alone it means nothing however is thousands upon thousands of my fellow brits did likewise the powers that be at bothy central government and the fuel companies would have to sit up nad listen as profits would plummet, all excercised from the comfort of your own home as well, where protesting blockading and interfering in the supply chain of fuel may well get you jailed this couldn't just an idea maybe not a brilliant one but an idea anyway.....

its a shame any protests are always ruined by thr threat of arrests, i would really like to see everyone get togethar & choke this country over the price of fuel but unforunatly that will never happen as the threat of arrest or people talk but dont do.

Freedom of speech my rear end......only when it suit them....not us....unless your a Muslim clerick of course at which point you can say and do pretty much what you like

Until enough of us band together it will always be this way.....where our government rule, they ask our opinion and do the exact opposite, i know for sure who will not be getting this votes in May anyone guess to whom i refer....