Tanker drivers' strike plan slammed

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Hundreds of members of the Unite union employed by two firms working on Shell contracts are due to walk out from 6am on Friday until 6am the following Tuesday in a pay dispute that could hit one in 10 filling stations across the UK.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown's spokesman said contingency plans were in hand to minimise disruption - using new measures put in place last week to deal with such situations.

He said: "We believe that this strike is unnecessary and we would want to ensure that nothing was done that inconvenienced the public. But the most responsible thing the public can do is to continue to buy as normal."

Talks aimed at averting the strike will be held at a secret location on Wednesday.

Bernie Holloway, from Hoyer, the biggest of the two transport companies involved in the dispute, said it was "disappointing" that Unite had rejected an improved pay offer last week, adding: "We believe this was a very good offer that would take the average drivers' pay up to around £39,000."

Mr Holloway said he hoped that Wednesday's talks, at the conciliation service Acas, would break the deadlocked row. The union said its improved offer, made during a meeting last Thursday, was worth 6.8%.

A spokesman for the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform said it was "inevitable" that some petrol stations would run out of fuel if the industrial action went ahead. "If the strike were to affect other retailers it would have a more significant impact," he added.

Downing Street said contingency measures included allowing suppliers to share information about stocks without falling foul of competition laws. "The Government is working with the wider fuel industry on what could be done to reduce any disruption to the public and business," said the PM's spokesman.

He said it was disappointing that talks had failed to produce an agreement but welcomed the involvement of Acas. Asked if he feared panic-buying, he said: "We want the public to continue to buy as normal so as to avoid creating problems that might otherwise not exist."