DTI drops petrol ombudsman plan

The Department of Trade and Industry is planning to water down plans to create a petrol ombudsman.

The original proposal was to set up a body with enough independent muscle to police the issue of petrol retail in the UK – an industry that has generated a series of bitter squabbles between various players.

Many of those battles centre on friction between small retailers and the major oil companies. The independents have long argued that they are unable to compete fairly with the likes of BP and Esso, and the rise of the large supermarkets has created another dimension to the arguments.

But it has now emerged that plans for an ombudsman have been replaced with a softer proposal – that the DTI hosts a series of round-table discussions between the various groups in an effort to bring all of the opinions into the open.

Independent retailers believe the ombudsman plans have been abandoned due to staunch rejection of the idea by the major oil companies.

Plans for an ombudsman arose whenBrian Wilson became Energy minister. Soon after taking on the job, he agreed that there could be a role for a body able to pass judgements on issues before the parties ended up in court.

The ombudsman plans were also thought to have been pushed forward after the Government feared a repeat of the fuel crisis that crippled UK roads when petrol prices reached 80p per litre in 2001.

Although representatives of the independent retailers are keen supporters of the idea of an ombudsman, the major oil companies have consistently argued against it, saying their activities are already covered by the Office of Fair Trading.

It is understood that the DTI has sent invitations to a wide variety of industry players who might be interested in having their views known, including the majors, the supermarkets and the Petrol Retailers' Association.

A spokesman for the DTI indicated that the first of the round-table discussions was only "weeks away".