CALLS for fuel rationing to meet green targets have been given the thumbs down by motorists and political leaders in Poole.

A parliamentary group’s idea for tradeable energy quotas has been dismissed from either side of the government coalition by MPs from the town.

But both Robert Syms, Conservative MP for Poole, and North Poole and Mid Dorset MP, Liberal Democrat, Annette Brooke, have called for extra help for some motorists hit by spiralling fuel prices.

Mr Syms said market forces should dictate people’s fuel usage, not politicians.

“I don’t think fuel rationing is something that would find favour with any government. Rationing would be politicians deciding the priorities for the nation,” he said.

He added that he would support short-term government help for road hauliers competing with foreign hauliers arriving from the Continent with tanks filled with cheaper fuel.

Mrs Brooke said she did not support the Peak Oil group of MP’s call for fuel rationing.

“I wouldn’t have thought that we were at that stage yet. There are lots of things we can all do sensibly,” she said.

Mrs Brooke called for greater help for motorists in rural areas and said she was soon to meet Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander MP, to discuss measures.

“So many people in our rural areas, where you are lucky if there is one bus a day, are dependent on the car and the majority of people living in rural areas are on low incomes,” she said.

She said that small businesses had written to her calling for support for a fuel stabiliser where fuel duty drops when oil prices rise, but expressed her concerns about how it would work in practice.