Plan to reduce rural petrol costs

The Government will ask petrol retailers to tell them their prices in a bid to reduce costs for rural areas

Rural areas of our region with high fuel prices could get a discount if the government gets permission from the European Commission to extend a fuel rebate scheme.

The current Island Rebate Scheme reduces the price of fuel on the Scottish islands and the Isles of Scilly, as the cost of transporting fuel to the islands pushes prices up for motorists.

But Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander says the same problem exists in many rural areas of the UK, including North Yorkshire, so the Government is now gathering evidence from such areas to form an application to extend the scheme.

They're asking fuel retailers to provide information on how much they charge for petrol and diesel and the results will be put into an application to be submitted this Autumn.