A West Malling garage owner has described how giving fuel to only emergency workers for an hour yesterday turned out to be an "almost impossible task", as hundreds "if not thousands" queued for petrol.

As drivers queued across Kent to get petrol, and the panic buying crisis deepened, Parkfoot Garage and Convenience Store, on London Road, decided to only give fuel to emergency service workers between 9am and 10am yesterday.

Owner David Charman said: "We tried to do the right thing and allow people that actually have got more important jobs than, with respect, you or I, and need to get to work to save lives, but it turned out to be an almost impossible task.

"We literally had hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands of people all claiming to be as needy at the next person, we had firemen and policemen, it was very difficult for us to make that judgement.

"I am not sure we can offer that sort of thing again."

The businessman says yesterday morning queues started forming at 3am, after fuel was delivered, and at one stage there were about 300 cars.

Queues are forming at the pumps yet again today amid fears many workers will be unable to get to work due to the fuel panic buying crisis.

Mr Charman said: "Such is the depth of the problem we find ourselves in as a county, this is very serious and it's not going to get any better that quickly.

"We talked about just key workers but there are an awful lot of people who feel they are of a higher priority than anybody else, it doesn't matter what they do."

The garage is now closed to the public until more fuel is delivered. The small amount of fuel they do have left is being reserved for ambulances and other emergency cases.

Mr Charman said: "We are making a judgement call on people phoning us. I had a doctor stop me yesterday, he said 'I am off out to see patients', he's calling me when he needs fuel.

"I have got a funeral ambulance on our way to us who have only got 10 miles left, that's a very important service."

He says people are ringing "every 20 seconds", asking for fuel.

"It's a very difficult situation where everybody feels they should be more of a priority than anybody else. It bring out the worst and the best in people."

He added: "Don't think this is good for our business, it's extremely disruptive."

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