By Chris Story

Last updated 13:34, Monday, 08 December 2008

Motorists in Cumbria were today cashing in on another fuel price fall as a forecourt cost war further intensified.

A petrol pump

Supermarket Morrisons, which has stores in Carlisle, Penrith, Workington and Whitehaven, was the first to slash the price of diesel to below the £1-a-litre mark – a move welcomed by motoring organisations.

They were quickly followed by Asda, which has a store at Kingstown, Carlisle.

The firm announced that from tomorrow they would be matching Morrisons’ 99.9p for diesel and cutting the price of unleaded to 87.9p per litre.

Morrisons’ price for unleaded in Carlisle today was 88.9p per litre.

According to fuel price comparison websitepetrolprices.com, the average cost of unleaded in Carlisle this morning was 91p per litre with diesel at 105.4p per litre.

Morrisons said its 99.9p per litre price for diesel – a cut of up to 5p on weekend levels and a drop of 34p from its July high – would apply at all its pumps.

The retailer was the first supermarket chain to drop the price of unleaded to below £1-a-litre in October and under 90p last month.

Chief executive Marc Bolland said: “We are absolutely committed to giving the strongest value for our growing number of customers.”

The move means that drivers of a typical diesel family car will be more than £18 better off on a full tank of fuel than they were in July.

Paul Watters, head of public affairs at the AA, said the cost-cuts would make big savings for diesel drivers.

He added: “It is not surprising because the price of oil has come down. It has taken a while for it to reflect at the pumps.”

Petroleum giant BP also announced it was following the supermarkets, cutting diesel prices by 3p per litre at some of its 300 company-owned sites from today.

Unleaded costs were also cut by up to 2p at some of its sites with the company stating its prices were being reviewed daily.

A statement said: “Since the beginning of November we have cut unleaded by over 10p per litre and diesel by around 6p per litre at many of our company-owned sites.”

Supermarket Sainsbury’s also plans to cut prices on its forecourts.