A PETROL station manager in Worcestershire who is offering what may be the cheapest fuel bargains in Britain says Worcester supermarkets should follow his example and slash prices.

The Harvest Petrol Station in Alcester Road, Redditch is offering unleaded at 109.7p per litre today as festive fuel bonanza continues on Worcestershire's forecourts. This is even cheaper than the 109.9p per litre listed as the cheapest on the Petrol Prices website today, suggesting this forecourt really does have the best bargains in Britain although the picture changes on a daily basis.

Franchise owner and garage manager Velautham Sarveswaran at Harvest featured in the national newspapers which suggested that his petrol stations may be the cheapest in Britain.

Today he told your Worcester News reporter that if he can cut prices, so can the big supermarkets (which have greater buying power) to reflect the falling price of crude oil.

He said: "When crude oil prices are coming down the question is whether the supermarkets will reduce their prices next week. Some people are commenting that I'm taking on the supermarkets and 'will I survive if they come down hard on me?'"

But Mr Sarveswaran, who runs the business with his wife Ananthi, says by consistently providing cheaper prices than the supermarkets he has been able to build up a loyal customer base. He has had queues at his garages (he manages five in the region) and has run out of fuel at times because of the cheap prices on offer but insists it is all a learning curve. He said: "Hopefully we won't run out again."

Tesco in Evesham almost matched the great deals in the north of the county, offering unleaded at 110.9p yesterday. Worcester was only 1p behind, with Tesco in Millwood Drive, Warndon Villages, Worcester, and Sainsbury's in Blackpole, Worcester offering unleaded at111.9p per litre according to the Petrol Prices website. This means unleaded prices in Worcester at the cheapest garages have fallen by 5p in a week - the cheapest price (as of Wednesday, December 10) had been 116.9 at Sainsbury's in Blackpole. The figures also suggest a widening gulf between the deals on offer at Worcester's forecourts meaning drivers need to be more savvy when filling up. For example Mrh in Castle Street as of yesterday was offering unleaded at 115.9p, still one of the five cheapest petrol stations in Worcester but nevertheless 4p a litre more expensive than Sainsbury's in Blackpole. Diesel at Sainsbury's yesterday was 119.9p, falling from 121.9p a few days ago.

Worcester MP Robin Walker said of the cheap prices in Redditch: "That is great. Good on him. I'm glad it's someone from Worcestershire who is doing it. That's very exciting. I would encourage any local petrol stations to join in to show the independents can compete with the supermarkets and drive down the price of fuel for consumers. This is the way competition works. Someone has taken the bold step of reducing prices and showing they can manage it. It will be a good thing if it results in supermarkets taking their prices down to reflect the fall in oil prices."