All Night Self Service

In this world of increasing automation it came as little surprise to learn that British Petroleum are opening a 24-hours self service petrol station at Billericay, Essex. Customers put a £1 note into the machine and help themselves to petrol to that value. It will obviously have to be a fairly clever machine, for it will not be long before someone tries feeding in a piece of blank paper the size and texture of a £1 note. However, it may make a change from the usual service: one of Motor Sport‘s staff has, within the last six months, been short-changed once, given short measure once and lost two filler caps when pump attendants had not put them back after filling up.