Motorist are constantly penalised by driving on largely sub-standard, and in many cases dangerous, rural roads and township streets. Apart from the currently temporarily reduced fuel excise there has been no real intervention to prevent the fuel companies from blatant fuel price "gouging". I am old enough to recall government control on fuel price and to recall the hue and cry when fuel price was increased by a mere couple of pence, or cents, per Imperial Gallon.

It is my opinion that ever since our weights and measures were converted to metric scales one of the biggest losers has been the motorists. The rise per litre is less evident than it would be if multiplied by 4.54 to show the increase per imperial gallon.

Today (June 17 2022) in Wingham where I reside the price of diesel fuel is between $2.229 and $2.339 per litre, or in Imperial measures $10.12 to $10.62 per gallon. This is, in my view, nothing less than outrageous.

I reside on the outskirts of Wingham where there is no public transport available. I have no option but to drive into town on a regular basis. My vehicle uses about 10.5 litres/100 km and holds 132 litres of fuel. At the two prices quoted in Wingham it would cost between $294.23 and $308.75 to fill the tank from empty.

Of course this pricing will lead to increased costs in most aspects of daily life. We are already seeing the cost of groceries, electricity, gas and many other items being increased unabated. We now have the threat of suffering "blackouts" as a result of the shortages of gas and coal. This is compounded by the "climate change" zealots in their headlong rush to "renewable energy" without any viable back-up in place.

Surely it is time for some meaningful action to be taken to control the rampant ripping off of the general public by those profit hungry companies engaged in such price gouging as is evident in the fuel costs of today and to add some common sense to the introduction of so-called "green energy".

Tony Ryan, Wingham