Drivers filling up early

Press, 2 June 1979, Page 6

Drivers filling up early

Christchurch motorists seem to be tired of queueing up to fill their ranks before the week-end petrol-sales ban. Many city service stations put on extra staff as the three-day Queen’s Birthday week-end ban loomed last evening but most found that drivers had stocked up in advance.

“It was a waste of time putting extra men on. We were very busy on Thurs-

day night and throughout yesterday but there was not much doing last night,” said a spokesman for Bruce Reid Motors, in Moorhouse Avenue. The manager of the Blue Star Service Station in Moohouse Avenue said that petrol sales had been heavy' on Thursday and yesterday but had eased by last evening.

“We used to get terrible last-minute rushes but people seem to be adjusting to the ban,” he said.

Only essential users will be allowed to buy petrol during the week-end. Normal sales will not resume until 6 a.m. on Tuesday. By late last evening the Christchurch police had issued three emergencypetrol permits. All three cases involved family deaths or illnesses, said a police spokesman. Several other applications for emergency permits had been refused.