A driving instructor is one of a number of drivers whose car was damaged by petrol purchased from a station in Penwortham.
Darren Moss, who is a driving instructor with Steer Smart and lives in Penwortham, filled up last Thursday (9 October) at the Esso garage on Leyland Road which is managed by Asda.
By Friday morning (10 October) the car had lost power on a small journey.
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He told Blog Preston: “I purchased some unleaded fuel from Middleforth petrol station on Thursday night. I’m a driving instructor and used my car briefly Friday morning, for no more than a mile, but it had lost power so I booked it in at Hardings for Tuesday morning.
“On Monday I tried starting it but it wouldn’t start. I had it towed to Hardings Garage for inspection. They checked the fuel and could see that it had separated into two cloudy liquids. I’m currently awaiting a response from the manager of the petrol station.”
Hardings Garage is on Marshalls Brow in Penwortham and on Tuesday they warned drivers to avoid the station due to what they described as ‘contaminated fuel’.
Steven Cuming, the owner of the garage, told Blog Preston: “We suspect that water and sediment has gotten into the fuel tanks at the petrol station, particularly in the storms not so long ago – but that’s just my theory.
“The guys at the petrol station are nice people. But it’s not Esso’s fault, they’ll be delivering fuel that’s clean.”
Hardings Garage has kept hold of the fuel in question so Darren has evidence when he comes to being reimbursed in future. In that fuel, a layer of sediment is visible settled at the bottom.
He continued: “He can’t use the tank again, it’s quite a lot of work to put it right.”
“We’re not trying to name and shame the garage, it’s just something drivers need to know about.”
Darren said that the cost of repairs to his vehicle has been quoted at £2,800 but the issue is made worse by the fact he cannot currently work due to the car being out of action.
It is not clear how many drivers have been affected.
The Esso garage at Leyland Road is managed by Asda following their acquisition of EG Group petrol stations in 2023.
Blog Preston asked Asda a number of questions, including when the issue would be resolved and what the business was doing to look after customers who had been affected.
They said that they would compensate anyone affected and that repair work is underway on the tanks at the Leyland Road petrol station.
They told us in a statement: “We’re aware that a small number of drivers were affected by contaminated fuel at our Asda Express Middleforth store, caused by water entering the tanks.
“As soon as we identified the issue, we immediately closed the pumps and began draining and repairing the tanks. While we expect the affected pumps to be back up and running soon, we apologise unreservedly for this and will ensure any driver who has been affected will be fully compensated”
When we visited the garage at Middleforth on Thursday (16 October), there were out of order signs on a number of the pumps.
Blog Preston understands one person reported the problem to Lancashire County Council and they advised that it was not a trading standards issue but one that Asda would need to deal with.
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