When I saw your ‘Absolutely Shocking’ headline in last week’s paper I mistakenly thought you were describing the disparity between the price of petrol at Morrisons in Bridport and the BWOC garage in Misterton – 178p vs 164p. That equates to over 60p a gallon or over £5 to fill up a typical car’s tank.

Having complained to Morrisons, I was told: ‘we use a local pricing policy and do our best to be as competitive as we can wherever we operate’. Surely there is no way this difference can be justified, especially as Morrisons must sell far more petrol than BWOC. There are similar disparities with garages in Seaton and Musbury. Even the petrol station in Winterbourne Abbas is cheaper!

Surely the only reason they can charge 14p more a litre for petrol than a garage that is less than 12 miles away is that there is, in effect, no competition. All they have to do is price their fuel at 1p less that the Esso garage.

There is one reason for the exorbitant cost of their fuel - they want to ensure no one can actually afford to drive any distance away from Bridport and thus discover just how much they are being ripped off. I truly hope this is not the case.

Kevin Payne

Thomson Close

Bridport