POORER drivers could be forced off the roads next year as the price of filling up looks likely to cost 14 per cent of average salaries, a damning report has warned.

This week the average cost of unleaded petrol hit a UK 20-year high, finally breaching the £5 per gallon mark.

But if motorists think things are bad now, they will be shocked by the gloomy forecast by independent price comparison website uSwitch.com.

It says unleaded is likely to reach a whopping £1.50 per litre by 2009, more than £6.80 a gallon.

This translates to £84 to fill the average car, or a wallet-busting £2,637 a year - the equivalent to 14 per cent of 2009's predicted average net salary of £19,167.98.

And as average prices hit 110.5 per litre for unleaded, more than £5 per gallon, and 120.8 per litre for diesel across Bournemouth, motorists vented their distaste at what has been dubbed "highway robbery at the pumps".

Driver Peter Gain, of Poole, said: "If these predictions are right, and lets face it, most of the predictions to date have been well short of the mark, people will be priced off the road.

"We all know about the problems at Grangemouth, but private motorists are being hit the hardest month in, month out."

Last week's two-day strike at Grangemouth oil refinery near Edinburgh caused some pumps in the north of England to run dry, and despite fuel chiefs playing down fears of a shortage, queues built up on forecourts across Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch.

Ann Robinson, director of consumer policy at uSwitch.com, said: "Unfortunately the outlook for drivers is bleak. This latest blow could be enough to force some drivers of the road altogether.

"Cash-strapped consumers are juggling price increases across all fronts.

"Drivers who are reliant on their cars for businesses or live in remote areas will be hardest hit - for them, leaving the car at home is not an option."

Poole motorist Graeme Hastings said it was high time the government cut fuel duty to ease the pressure on motorists.

He added: "This is just highway robbery at the pumps. I'm sure none of our elected members in the House of Commons will be struggling to pay their fuel bills next year."