A WELL-KNOWN Broughton-in-Furness filling station has been forced to close because of cut-throat competition from supermarkets.

The 40-year-old Market Street Filling Station, one of only two garages in the village, is running on empty, said owner Howard Procter, who is closing down imminently before he goes bust.

The station will close as soon as he has got rid of the last of his hardware and Calor gas stock.

For the moment, he has erected a sign on his forecourt informing customers: "The multiples have beaten us, we are unable to carry on as a viable business."

Ironically, Mr Procter took the heartbreaking decision to close the family business in the same week supermarkets such as Sainsbury's, Morrison's and Tesco cut petrol prices even further in response to falling crude oil prices.

"We cannot buy fuel at the same prices as the supermarkets let alone sell it," said Mr Procter.

"It would be cheaper for us to go to Asda and put it on the back of a pick-up.

"We are selling at 80-odd pence for a litre, the supermarkets are dropping prices again down to the mid-70s.

"If we keep going we are going to end up going bust, the overheads outweigh the income."

The filling station was founded in 1964 by Mr Procter's in-laws.

Emma and Dorothy Lancaster were his wife Janet's grandmother and mother.

Later, Janet's father Norman joined the business and when her parents retired in 1998, the Procters took over.

For the immediate future, they plan to concentrate efforts on their bed-and-breakfast business in Princes Street until they have decided what to do next.

"It's a sad day," said Mr Procter.

"I don't like to fail - when I take something on like to succeed - and I feel as though I have failed."

Meanwhile, Furness and surrounding areas could soon face a return to the fuel protests which saw petrol pumps in the area run dry last September.

The threat of further protest action comes from the self-styled People's Fuel Lobby - a collaboration of farmers and hauliers whose businesses have been hard hit by steep increases in the price of diesel over the past 12 months.

The PFL says the Government has not done enough to ease the burden of fuel duty and continues to fill its coffers with motorists money.

Paul Proctor, a self employed haulier from Askam-in-Furness, who was one of the drivers blockading a Shell fuel depot in Ulverston during last September's protests, said he would do the same again.

"If it comes around again I would have to stand my ground like last time ," he said,

Andrew Spence, of Farmers For Action, co-ordinated last year's fuel protests in the north west and north east.

He told the Gazette that action in the future was a very real possibility: "At the moment we are taking stock of the situation.

We have contacted certain co-ordinators in certain areas," he said.