A CUMBRIAN fuel retailer has urged people not to panic buy after queues have formed at several petrol stations.

Michael Gatty, of Hills of Corby Hill, said that the company's sites had seen a 60 percent increase in trade compared to Friday last week.

He said that there is no issue in Cumbria regarding fuel or driver shortages, but that panic buying had caused problems.

"Our sales this morning have increased massively.

"We’ve got big queues outside most of our petrol stations this morning and that is going to cause us a problem.

"That will cause us difficulty because we can’t replenish the fuel that we’re selling fast enough. That’s the trouble."

Hills of Corby Hill are independent fuel retailers which buys and resells fuel from BP, using their branding in the process.

They run 12 sites in Cumbria. These include Kingstown, Whiteclose Gate Filling Station and Carlton filling station, all of which are in Carlisle.

The company also runs Corby Hill garage, Southend Filling Station in Wigton, Townhead Garage in Penrith, Hills Garage in Ambleside and Hills Garage in Coniston.

In West Cumbria it has Essex Garage in Dearham, Longmile Filling Station in Lilyhall, Middlemoor Filling Station in Worktington and Pelican Garage in Whitehaven.

He said that Cumbria was unaffected by the issues that are impacting other parts of the UK.

"[There are] no issues at all in this area with fuel shortages. We’re absolutely fine for stocks.

"There’s absolutely plenty of fuel available and in this area there’s plenty of drivers as well."

He added: "We can cope with normal demand absolutely fine. We’ve had no issues up to today.

"If [today's demand] continues that will cause us a problem."