What utter trash! There are more people and more businesses in the South, thus the retailers control the demand with higher prices. If you check the prices in other cities you'll find similarly high prices. Besides, the oil companies are awash with cash anyway.

Claire, Edinburgh,

We only have one filling station in our town. Owned by Waitrose, it could charge exhorbitant prices but it is always on a par with Asda prices, even though the nearest supermarket is over 4 miles away.
Well done Waitrose, your fair play is much appreciated!
Jeff, Portishead, Somerset

J.Daniels, Portishead, somerset

ASDA has national pricing for food and fuel

Rob, Yorks,

All businesses do the same. Stop whining and get on with life.

if a price in your area really bothers you and there is somewhere better 7 miles away, write a letter to you local garage and say you will stop using them until prices are lower. If everyone does so prices will soon fall.

Neil Murphy, Cromer,

You want high prices? - check out your local Texaco. The one on the A23 at Dale Hill outside Brighton has the higest prices in Sussex. At one time Dale Hill was charging £1.38 for diesel.

Go figure!

Shell is by far the best and luckily I have one 1/4 mile from my door! Currently £1.19

Tony, Brighton,

To Shane, Wellington, New Zealand.

Scotland is self sufficient when you include oil and by all rules we do own the North Sea area, there is actually a pseudo country created so England can take the revenue. The oil we pump is sent abroad as it is VG quality and as you say the petrol is imported.

Joe, Edinburgh, Scotland

Well ... no-one is forced to tank at ASDA. There's Shell, BP, and a slew of others.

And as to "the government need to look into this", that's ridiculous. Quit whining for "The Government" at every turn, do your research and just fill up somewhere else, ok?

Golodh, London,

I am beginning to believe I must be seeing things. I am not aware of a uniform price of petrol or diesel from any supplier whether it be BP, Shell, Esso, Jet or the supermarkets. Why pick on the supermarkets? My local Shell station I was told price matches Sainsburys!

John B, Coventry, UK

Petrol is just a commodity - in the supermarket environment its the same as bread, milk etc. Have the AA - or anyone else looked at the regional pricing differentials for other supermarket staples?

Isn't it just supply and demand?...... or are we arguing for a fairer society?

Nicola, derby,

What I want to know is why deisel in my area is 14p per litre more than petrol. In some towns it looks as if supermarkets charge the same ( high) price where there is competition, much the same as do for other products they sell.

Ray Cobbett, Emsworth. Hampshire,

Shane in NZ, You keep on believing that somehow Scotland is a massive financial drain on England. It'll only be another 2 or 3 years before we all find out who is supporting who. I see the London based financial sector is doing very well at present -NOT

PS: Re your 3rd point- Buy a map

Bill, Aberdeen, Scotland

There isn't one price for a mars bar. It like petrol depends on the supermarket. Petrol at supermarkets is as I understand it is being discounted hence the price variations.

Porter, Hull,

The Asda in Dundee has to charge that if it wants to compete locally as the Shell garage 100 yards down the road still manages to offer at 1p per litre cheaper than Asda.

Dave Scott, Dundee, UK

When the difference in duty betwen unleaded and diesel is, I believe,only 2 or 3p can someone explain why, at the pumps,it is 11 to 14p?
In the Sandwell, West Mids area supermarkets (Sainsbury)are charging 107.9 for u/l and 120.9 for diesel UP 1p since 2 weeks ago.

A.Williams, Cradley Heath,

What short memories some people have. This is the reason for Tesco undercutting independent garages until they went out of business and for buying up land where effective competition could be stifled.

BJ, London,

Your the ones who choose to live in the south, you can not have everything, you already get 90% of the tax and 100% of the good jobs, there has to be some disadvantage, also dont forget price is driven by demand, 7 million people live in london alone, 7 times that of the next biggest city up here.

MR W Jones, Liverpool, England

I started following a few tips which has increased my fuel economy by 80 miles for a full tank. I do not use the accelerator on a downhill which is plentiful in UK - in London and Motorways. I ensure that I maintain an even speed and do not accelerate in spurts. This is with a Toyota Avensis.

Jagadish, Bromley, UK

I've just invented a car that will run 1,000 miles on a lire of water. Just wait, all those GREEDY Welsh garages and grillionaire Arabs will soon only have Sheep and Sand! hahahahha. Now, off to the patent office before it closes.

Rob Bain, Derby,

Er, isn't this what they call capitalism? In case the AA isn't familiar with the concept, it deals with charging what the market will bear to make a profit, not act as an extension to the social services.

Bill, Ramsey,

Labor supports 'anything goes' rip off perpetrated by supermarket oligopolies - that is 'third way socialism' - pretent to be socialist but act capitalist. Simple law prohibiting regional differentiation would solve this problem

Heinz Geyer, London,

When I visit my daughter in Swindon I always try to make sure that I buy fuel there because it is usually 5 to 7 pence a litre cheaper there than in the east midlands

J W, Market Harborough,

Shane,

This article is is refering to the North of England not the North of Britain (Scotland). So climb down from your tall horse. Tesco is very strong in Scotland.

Hayden, Forfar,

I'm from Manchester but now live in London. When I visit Manchester I stock up on everything from food, to washing powder, and always fill my tank. Cheapest petrol is in Morrisons - not many of those down south. I also get my car serviced up there too - labour can be £20 per hour cheaper.

Caroline, London,

When did Waltham Abbey move to London?

Judy, Basingstoke, UK

Having recently moved south and still travelling north, i find the price of diesel is predominantly cheaper in southern petrol stations. Supermarkets consistently offer better value than the likes of Shell and Esso, so why all the fuss?

Carl, Welwyn,

What winds me up is that Tesco are quick to put prices up, but extremely slow to reduce them ( a week at our local store!).
They deserve to be boycotted.
In Luxembourg its the same price everywhere. Why not here?
Profit and greed, that's why....

Phil Lloyd, Heath Hayes, England

Southerners have been subsudising Northerners one way or another for years - what's new?

John Bowman, Sarlat, France

All petrol stations sell fuel at different prices in different places, not just the supermarkets, it's called 'competition'.

David Leslie, Perth, Scotland

Tesco spokesman talking absolute rubbish...Tesco price at Sidcup just a week ago 114.9p, BP and Shell just over a mile down the road 109.9p. This week the price at Tesco 111.9p, still 109.9p at Shell.

Mark, London,

Simple - supermarkets now have an effective monopoly on fuel as they have driven the independents out of business - the OFT needs to get involved and make them divest at least 50% of their petrol stations. The lack of competition is demonstrated by the 5p off if you spend £50 offers around.

Richard, Newton Abbot,

“The government need to look at this and end what is little more than a post code lottery.” You're kidding me? The petrol belongs to Tesco and the price they choose to sell it at is their business and no-one elses, least of all our Government's. If the AA don't like it, they are as free to lobby and bring to bear market forces to persuade Tesco to reduce prices as Tesco are to charge whatever they like for their own petrol!

Lee, Sunderland, UK

NM Glasgow - the oil is in British waters off Scotland and the oil was only accessible with British tax payers money (90% English if you want to get national!).

Dan, London, UK

The "South" (read London and the home counties), supports the "North" for just about everything, from petrol, to food prices, and not forgetting that vast amounts of tax generated in the south is sent north. The south of England heavily subsidises the north in every way, and has for decades.

Matt, High Wycombe, Bucks

The only rip-off here is that petrol companies are keeping pump prices high whilst the oil price dropped.
We are all paying 10 to 15p per litre too much which is going directly into the oil companies super-profit fund.

Bill, Harrogate,

We live in Doncaster but were on holiday in Torbay in August this year when the petrol prices started to fall and we were paying £1.08 at both Morrisons and Sainsburys throughout the 3 weeks that we were away. On returning home the prices were exactly the same as we had been paying 'down south'.

Norman, Doncaster, England

Not according to Petrolprices.com
in Gayton, Merseyside it's 108.9. Cheapest in In Kensington, London is 107.9.
Slow day at the AA?

Phill, The Wirral, England

try living in wales they charged me 124 per litre of diesel in one of the poorest parts of wales because as explained by the lady behind the counter they have no competition

in cardiff it was 119 per liter sad they charge what they can when they can

m gaskell, cardiff, wales

I have used a local Shell petrol station for several years. I discovered that it was, perhaps surprisingly, the cheapest petrol in the area. And the quality is very high. Never had any rough running from Shell.

Chris Palmer, Southampton, Hampshire

to NM of Glasgow, what you say would be fine if (1) Scotland wasn't already a huge non-self sufficient tax burden on England, (2) the oil actually did only come from the North Sea, (3) that the North Sea somehow constitutes Scottish territorial waters

Shane, Wellington, New Zealand

4p difference between Dundee and Wembley? Considering that so much of the oil is from Scottish waters surely the real surprise is that the difference isn't more?

NM, Glasgow, Scotland

"Motoring organisation says that pricing variations mean drivers in south help subsidise cheaper petrol prices in north"

This fact is true of every consumer productin the UK from mortgages to sausages ... and has been for years.

Save the research funds and state the obvious up front.

Edwin, Bucharest,

Isn't everything more expensive darn sarf?

Anyway, I only get petrol at Shell. They're not only cheap, but the quality of their petrol is excellent.

M. R., Stockport, UK