Aberfeldy motorists face 20-mile round trip to fuel up

Plans to close a rural filling station for almost three months have raised serious concerns.

As part of a £700,000 investment in Aberfeldy, the Co-operative will carry out a massive overhaul of the petrol station.

It will cease trading on February 8 to allow new tanks to be installed and to enable building work on a new retail store to start.

However, residents have hit out at the decision as they will now be forced to travel 10 miles to Ballinluig to fill up, which some claim could leave them seriously out of pocket.

The regional operations manager for Co-operative Food, John Kelly, defended the plans, saying: “We realise how important the petrol station is to the local area but the storage tanks are in such a poor state that we have no option but to replace them.

“Unfortunately, it’s not a simple job and it would be impossible to continue to dispense fuel while the work is being carried out and we apologise to customers for the inevitable inconvenience it will cause.”

Mindful of the disquiet in the area over the issue, local councillor Ian Campbell has urged the company to keep the closure time “to a minimum”.

The filling station is expected to reopen in May.