TRADERS have spoken of their struggle to compete with the fuel prices of supermarket giants.

One Easingwold station has stopped selling unleaded petrol completely while others have branched out into other businesses.

The rapid drop in prices of both unleaded and diesel is expected to fall below £1 a litre for the first time since 2008 as the cost of crude oil plummets.

However, this has forced Chris Wiggins, owner of Rose Bower Garage, in Easingwold, to stop selling unleaded after he noticed motorists were no longer filling up cars at his station.

He said: "A lot of people are coming here to fill up their lawn mower tanks and not their cars.

"They buy about £5 for their lawn mowers then disappear to the supermarkets for the rest because it's cheaper.

"I do MOTs and services, I don't just rely on fuel because you need to sell a hell of a lot to get your money back.

"I always knew I couldn't compete with the supermarkets and it's a shame it has gone but this won't pay and it's not worth doing if I can't make any money."

Tom Brooke, managing director of Will and Freddies, at Shipton-by-Beningbrough, has branched out into selling locally sourced fruit, vegetables and pies in a bid to compete with supermarkets.

He added: "We struggle to compete with the big boys like Tesco and Asda but as an independent we feel like we have to have a unique selling point and we have diversified into a farm shop.

"We sell everything like Artisan bread, meat pies, fruit and vegetables, whatever we can source locally we do so.

"We can go one of two ways and have a shop where costs are low and drive the fuel or diversify and take on the shop."

Fuel prices continue to fall across York as the cost of crude oil is traded at 50 US dollars a barrel.

Asda at Monks cross has the lowest price per litre for unleaded and diesel, at 105.7p and 112.7p respectively, both down by two pence.

Sainsbury's offers a similar price at 105.9p for unleaded and 112.9p for diesel.

Morrisons and Tesco are charging motorists 106.9p for unleaded and 113.9p for diesel.