The pump price at L’Aumone yesterday reached £4.72 a gallon. (Picture by Adrian Miller, 0582264)

PETROL yesterday soared past the £1-a-litre mark in Guernsey for the first time. And the Co-op was criticised by a competitor for hiking unleaded fuel to 103.9p per litre at its L’Aumone forecourt.

However the Co-op admitted that the price hike was too high and said it would correct the mistake. Chief executive Jim Hopley said that high throughput and limited storage meant that the Co-op had no buffer against changes in oil prices.

‘We do not have the luxury some smaller players do of occasionally holding off price increases,’ he said.

Trevor Hockey – owner of Trev’s Motorcycles, which currently sells unleaded petrol at 86.9p per litre – was shocked when he heard the price. ‘It’s incredible,’ he said. ‘It seems to me that some of the larger garages have no concern for motorists at all.’