And More...

I hear that another restriction is being imposed, although I believe it is not yet law, on our motoring past. Chief Fire Officers are being empowered to inform garages that if their petrol pumps are within 4.25m of a public highway their licences to sell petrol will be revoked. It is easy to see what an enormous reconstruction of forecourts and even buildings this would invoke, especially for the older establishments and small country filling stations.

I can think of two cases, one a small village garage with pumps close to a quiet country road, and another in a country town where pumps installed in 1929 have pipes and hoses which swing out over the pavement, and could be said to be an item of tourist interest. Neither had, at the time of writing, been given a waiver against closure if the pumps are not re-sited before January 1996. With so much destruction of historic car factories and buildings, do we want to see garages follow suit?