EMERGENCY services in West Yorkshire have issued a message to ease concerns about their work during the ongoing fuel tanker driver shortage.

Since Friday there have been issues with petrol stations across Bradford and the rest of the UK seeing their pumps run dry due to a shortage of HGV drivers meaning deliveries of fuel being disrupted.

This has prompted some people to panic buy fuel, causing long queues at petrol stations over the weekend as people rushed to fill up their tanks.

Some petrol stations had to put limits on customers or turn cars away due to a shortage of fuel.

LATEST: Live updates on fuel shortage in Bradford

This has caused some people to criticise others for being selfish, and concerns have been raised on social media about emergency response vehicles not being able to get fuel because of the panic.

However, West Yorkshire Prepared, the Local Resilience Forum (LRF) which represents the county’s police fire and ambulance services, has reassured people that its frontline emergency responders are unaffected by the issue.

A spokesperson said: “We would like to reassure people that our frontline emergency responders, including the police, fire and ambulance services, are not experiencing any issues due to the current fuel supply issues.

“All services have their own provisions to ensure they are self-sufficient for fuel.

“The LRF has liaised with all key partners and has confirmed there are no issues.

“Should any issues arise, our regional ‘Fuel Disruption Plan’ will be activated whereby mutual aid is offered where required to ensure business continuity.

“We will continue to communicate with all partners to monitor the situation.

“In the meantime, we would ask members of the public to fuel their cars as normal and only purchase what you need.”

The crisis has been caused by a lack of specialist fuel tanker drivers, caused in part by many drivers going back to mainland Europe following Brexit, and also by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Government has said it is creating thousands of temporary visas for drivers and wants to train up thousands more homegrown drivers to address the issue – likened to closing the stable door after the horse has bolted by some.

It is also writing to HGV licence holders to try and entice them back into work with higher wages and pledges to improve truck stop conditions.

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