A fuel retailer has urged people in Whitehaven not to panic buy petrol as queues continue to form around petrol stations in the area.

Michael Gatty, of Hills of Corby Hill, owns the Pelican Garage on New Road and has said that the company's sites had seen a 60 percent increase in trade compared to last week.

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

"There isn’t any need for people to be continuing to panic buying, petrol stations are actually performing better than they had been last weekend.

"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.

As petrol stations have been forced to cap fuel spending to £30 a time and drivers may arrive to see ‘out of fuel’ covers placed over petrol pumps, however Mr Gatty wants the public to know that this is not due to there being a shortage of supplies.

He said: “You will see a number of dry lots but that is only due to the demand. There isn’t a lack of petrol and we will see further availability shortly.”

Mr Gatty’s thoughts come around the same time as the Petrol Retailers Association announced that there are "early signs that the crisis at pumps is ending”.

The group, which represents independent forecourts across the UK, says more of its members are "now taking further deliveries of fuel".

In a statement, the group say that: "Fuel stocks remain normal at refineries and terminals, although deliveries have been reduced due to the shortage of HGV drivers.”

It adds that 37% of forecourts have reported being out of fuel, but that percentage "is likely to improve further over the next 24 hours".