4p per litre fuel hike

Alcohol, tobacco and fuel are all going up.

For drinkers it's not too big a blow, alcohol's seeing a 3.5% rise.

Tobacco is a bit more, as the States campaign to stamp out smoking, so that's going up 4.6%

But fuel is an especially large rise this year, nearly 11% that's 4p a litre, and some islanders are seriously worried about how it'll affect their business.

Another Budget equals another increase in petrol prices. Between rising oil costs and extra taxes, driving a car in Guernsey has become a whole lot more expensive.

And that's not changing in this year's budget. Duty on fuel is going up by 10.8 per cent. That means an extra 4p on every litre of petrol or diesel. In total the tax increase should bring an extra £1.4 million pounds of revenue to the States next year.

But it comes at an extra cost to islanders. At Braye Road Garage they say customers are aren't happy.

It's Christmas time and they don't want to be spending more money on petrol. They think the increase is hitting small businesses particularly hard.

Mark Finn said: "If you're a removals van, you're a small one man firm, plumber and you've got to drive around all day long, all of a sudden you're paying £15 a week or something that you weren't paying a couple of years ago, and that sort of adds up, it's an extra £500 a year you're going to have to find just to pay for driving your van, something you didn't have to pay for two years ago, three years ago."

But not everyone's unhappy at the proposed price rise. Environmental group G-CAN say they welcome anything that encourages islanders to drive less. They're urging the States to develop a progressive, forward thinking transport strategy which will encourage people to use alternative forms of transport.

Lindsay De Sausmare said: "The silver lining to this of course is that the car isn't the only way to get around, ultimately we live on a very small island and there are plenty of other ways of getting around. Admittedly we'd like those alternative methods of transport to be made much easier to use, but people can still consider walking, taking the bus, riding a bike, so let's hope that many more people do consider those options before jumping in their car." (from CTV)

With the price of oil moving up more fuel price increases are to come...

i believe garages have already put the increase on when it was first announced and should not increase it anymore x