Cheap fuel at Waitomo's new fuel stop in Upper Hutt not 'a good thing'

Cars queue on Fergusson Drive for cheaper fuel at Waitomo's new station. Photo / Supplied

A Wellington city councillor says people shouldn't be getting excited about a cheaper petrol station opening in the region because it's "to our detriment".

Pictures on social media showed cars queuing down Fergusson Drive in Upper Hutt after Waitomo opened a station there, offering petrol prices from $1.89 per litre compared to about $2.28 in Wellington city.

But councillor Iona Pannett said cheap fuel was nothing to be celebrating over.

"For some people cheaper petrol will be a good thing because obviously people's household budgets are under pressure and sometimes public transport just doesn't work, but basically overall the problem with cheap petrol is it encourages people to use their cars rather than using a more sustainable alternative," she said.

Dropping fuel prices was "continuing to send out the message that we can keep on burning fossil fuels even though it's obviously to our detriment overall".

She said what was actually needed were policies making it cheaper to charge and buy electric vehicles and use public transport, and which made it "extremely expensive to use a petrol-powered car".

Pannett recognised there were challenges with the public transport system at the moment, and urgent work needed to be done to sort them out.

"From a climate perspective we know that we're in trouble and we really need to make that transition to a sustainable transport system, which means people walking and biking where possible and taking public transport."

She wanted to see councils move to all-electric vehicles, and said some rubbish trucks were starting to be powered by electricity.

But celebrations over the price of petrol at Waitomo's station were only adding to the problem.

"It's just sending out this message, you know, that cheap petrol is a good thing, and I think we just need to take a considered approach to that, particularly when we know about the impact of burning those fossil fuels."

However, she did not want to see big companies "gouging" consumers either.

Waitomo opened its station in Upper Hutt yesterday to much excitement from locals.

People on community Facebook pages compared scenes of queuing cars to "Armageddon".

Others said they gave up waiting in line after being stuck there for half an hour.

As part of its national network expansion plans, the Hamilton-based fuel supplier will open a second Wellington site in Tinakori by mid-July.

Prices at the unmanned 24-hour fuel stop will stay at a special low until 12pm on Thursday, with unleaded 91 at $1.899 a litre, premium 95 at $2.029 a litre and diesel at $1.199 a litre.

Waitomo managing director Jimmy Ormsby said they had "stirred things up".

"Motorists down here have been hurting at the pump for too long, and we're stoked to put that right," he said.

Guests will be welcomed on site with free coffee and hot food available.

Further fuel stops are currently under construction in central Wellington and New Plymouth and will open in July. Waitomo has also announced it will open a Christchurch site later this year.