A bus firm is reporting delays to some of its services in Southend due to petrol station queues.
Arriva says its 1 services are facing delays due to heavy traffic and congstion in London Road.
It says queues have formed outside a petrol station which has recently been refuelled.
#Southend #Service1s due to the recent refuelling of the petrol station down London road our service 1s are currently experiencing delays due to heavy traffic. we are sorry for any inconvenience.
— Arriva Herts & Essex (@arrivaessex) October 1, 2021
Arriva did not report any major delays to its services yesterday, while First Essex has also not reported any problems related to petrol station queues since Tuesday.
Rochford Council is still warning there may be some delays to waste collections because of issues with refuelling vehicles.
Green waste and refuse bins may be affected.
A Government minister has warned motorists could face another “week or so” of long queues at the filling stations as demand for petrol remains strong.
Policing minister Kit Malthouse said there needs to be an “improvement” in the situation in the coming days and that Boris Johnson stands ready to review matters if there is any deterioration.
His downbeat assessment contrasted sharply with comments by other ministers in recent days that the situation would swiftly return to normal as drivers resumed their usual buying patterns.
It follows a warning by the Petrol Retailers Association that filling stations were running out of fuel faster than they could be resupplied, with one in four forecourts having run dry.
Mr Malthouse told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: “We are still seeing strong demand in parts of the country around fuel. The distribution mechanism is trying to respond to this unprecedented demand.
“My latest briefing is that the situation is stabilising, that we are seeing more forecourts with a greater supply of fuel and hopefully that, as demand and supply come better into balance over the next few days, week or so, that we will see a return to normality.
“I think if things started to deteriorate further, obviously the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Energy, whose responsibility this is, will have to review the situation.”
His comments came just 24 hours after another minister – Treasury Chief Secretary Simon Clarke – claimed the situation was “absolutely back under control”.
Earlier this week Mr Johnson ruled out granting priority access to fuel to healthcare staff on the grounds that it was unnecessary as the situation was “stabilising”.
However Mr Malthouse said there were “pockets” of the country where there were still problems – with London and the South East reported to be among the hardest hit.
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