VICTORIA Point residents are being ripped off, paying higher fuel prices than motorists just a few kilometres away.
Locals claim the supermarket chain garages in those areas regularly charge up to 20c per litre more than other outlets in adjoining suburbs.
A Redland City Bulletin survey of E10 unleaded fuel prices showed garages in those areas were charging up to 14.2c per litre more for petrol than Cleveland, Capalaba, Rochedale and Daisy Hill.
Victoria Point and Redland Bay were charging 116.9c but Cleveland was charging 104.0c, Capalaba 104.3c, Rochedale 102.9c and Daisy Hill 102.7c, according to fuel watch organisations the RACQ and Motormouth.
Redland Bay resident Alan Hill-Hartporter said it was hard to understand how there could be such a large variance in price between petrol stations, some of which were just kilometres apart.
“They put the prices up at Victoria Point three weeks ago before any other stations and they have remained there,’’ he said.
“For pensioners who rarely travel outside the area it is a substantial weight to bear in costs every day.
“Surely there can be little justification for an almost 20 per cent levy on those living at Victoria Point?
“But the real focus must be – why shop local, when your local supermarket is screwing the last ounce of profit from those people?’’
A Woolworths spokesman said the company aimed to meet the lowest price in the “local area’’.
He said prices were moved up and down to follow competitors.
“Woolworths aims to give our customers the best prices in the local market for their petrol,’’ he said.
It is understood that in the price cycle, BP usually moves first, with supermarket outlets tending to follow.
RACQ spokeswoman Renee Smith said it appeared service stations in the Victoria Point area were not acting competitively.
Ms Smith said the way for motorists to fight back was to buy elsewhere and make sure they bought on the bottom of the weekly fuel price cycle.
“Obviously people wouldn’t want to be driving too far to buy cheaper fuel because that defeats the purpose but they should be aware of prices,’’ she said.
“It’s worth it for motorists to do their research. You can’t assume that prices will be the same everywhere.
“If motorists support those stations with lower prices, they will force the others to drop their prices.’’
Mr Hill-Hartporter said it was a deplorable state of affairs.
RACQ executive general manager advocacy Paul Turner said last month that Queenslanders had been slugged too much for fuel for too long.
“Despite current 10 year lows for unleaded petrol in parts of the state, if we look back over the past six or seven years Brisbane motorists have been consistently paying more than the other major cities and for no good reason,” Mr Turner said.
