As The Arran Banner went to press, prices on the island reached £1.10.7 a litre for diesel and £1.09.1 for petrol.

The surge follows a 2p rise in fuel duty. The increase, in line with inflation, was first announced in Gordon Brown’s 2007 budget when he was chancellor.

Bob Haddow, a director of Arran Transport, which sells fuel from the garage in Brodick, said: ‘We are horrified that the price of petrol is going up again. The chancellor is taking the money this time rather than the oil companies. Unfortunately there’s nothing we can do about him. Maybe it’s a case for Scottish independence. The price of petrol in Croatia is 30 per cent cheaper than here and that’s a very small country.’

Mr Haddow added: ‘We think it’s putting the cost of living up, especially to all those who have to go back and forward to their jobs. They are the ones who really suffer. They need to use more petrol than anyone else.’

Donald Bannatyne, of Arran Haulage, said: ‘What we are paying for fuel at the moment is quite unacceptable. It’s the customer that ends up paying in the end. We can’t absorb these increases. It’s putting our costs up. We still have to operate, we’ve still got to buy diesel.’

He added: ‘I don’t think the government will make any changes. I don’t think they understand what they are doing to the economy.’

The duty rise comes amid soaring oil prices and high borrowing costs. The 2007 Budget also outlined another rise of 2p a litre next April and a further increase of 1.84p in April 2009.

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