A Tesco petrol station has become the nation’s cheapest forecourt by accident after a rat gnawed through the cable used to update pricing.
The garage has not been able to update the electronic price display because of the damage caused by the rat, meaning customers are paying far cheaper than the national average.
Currently the Tesco petrol station is advertising petrol at 134.9p a litre and diesel at 136.9p. However, fuel prices hit record highs this week, with the average price of a litre of petrol now 144.9p and diesel 148.84p.
According to reports staff decided the right thing to do was honour the advertised prices, much to the delight of local car owners.
In the know drivers have been spotted cleverly filling up their engines on the cheap in their droves as the matter is still unresolved.
The rat has caused so much damage that the petrol station cannot accept contactless card payments, though customers can still use PIN numbers or cash, according to Mirror Online.
This is not the first time the local rat population has plagued the Tesco shop in Sheerness, Kent, after the critters allegedly gnawed through concrete to get to its food stores in the past.
A source close to Tesco said: “We are closing our Sheerness Extra petrol garage for a short time while we fix a technical issue. This is not impacting any other Tesco petrol garages.”
However, drivers in the rest of the country are not as lucky - and are dealing with serious price increases.
The rising cost of fuel means drivers now pay 34p more to fill up an average 55-litre family car than they did last week - from £79.03 to £79.69.
For diesel car owners, the figure is an extra 73p - with prices going up from £81.11 to £81.84.
Drivers may even pay more than this for fuel, depending on where they are filling up.
In January petrol cost just 115.3p a litre on average, and diesel 119.9p.
The dramatic hike has been driven primarily by the oil price doubling from around $40 (£29.42) a barrel a year ago to $85 now – but some analysts predict it could hit $90 by the end of the year.
The price hike shown in government figures echoes one from the RAC motoring organisation, which also says fuel costs are rising.
The RAC also said the big four supermarkets were also to blame for the rises late last month.
Collectively, they upped the price of unleaded by more than 9p a litre and diesel by more than 10p to averages of 142.18p and 145.28p respectively by October 25.
Asda had the cheapest petrol at 140.98p, only slightly lower than Sainsbury’s at 141.68p. Sainsbury’s, however, offered the lowest price diesel at 144.37p, just slightly less than Asda which charged 144.57p at the end of October.
The average price of motorway petrol was 158.43p on 31 October, with a record price set the day before at 158.56p. Diesel closed October at a new all-time high of 163.08p.
Around one-third of the cost of a litre of fuel is tax. Petrol and diesel are both taxed at 57.95p per litre.
