QUEUES caused traffic chaos and petrol stations were closed by police as panic grew over a possible strike by tanker drivers yesterday.

Police were forced to take action at various sites, asking several stations to close temporarily to clear cars clogging up roads.

In Southbourne, locals said drivers fearing fuel shortages had queued from 6am to fill up at the Murco in Southbourne Grove.

At around 8.30am, police arrived to control traffic that was queuing along the road, preventing drivers from blocking those not wanting to use the petrol station – a scene repeated around the conurbation.

Tempers flared between drivers told to move on and the police, as well as with those trying to cut the queue by turning into the petrol station from the opposite side of the road.

At Shell in Barrack Road, Christchurch, cars queued along the dual carriageway to fill up, while at the Esso down the road stocks of unleaded had run dry.

Tesco at Castle Lane had marshals around the car park trying to minimise disruption.

One driver queuing at Southbourne, Sheila Davey, said: “I don’t believe in driving miles, because I use up all my petrol.

“I’m being better safe than sorry and putting in what I normally put in.”

Another driver at Shell in Barrack Road added: “If they’re going to strike there’s not much we can do about it. All we have to do is put up with it.”

Micky Smith went to the Murco on behalf of her husband, David, who is a gardener and regularly fills petrol cans up to power his equipment.

She asked if she could get a note allowing him to do so, but was told that she could not.

“It’s the stupid people that filling up when there are people who need it to do a job. It’s his livelihood,”

she said.

The queues at Southbourne were also causing problems for traders after police cordoned off some parking spaces to accommodate the queues.

Jackie Whitemore, from Whitemore’s Butchers, said: “Nobody can deliver and nobody can park to shop. We’ve not heard of anybody this morning. The effect of the panic buying is not good for local trade.

“Nobody is hearing the other side of it, which is that it’s making local businesses lives very difficult.