High petrol prices in west Oxfordshire look set to continue because plans for a new Asda superstore in Witney do not include a filling station.

Prices in the area last week ranged from 83.9p per litre on forecourts owned by big oil companies, to 84.9p at independently-owned businesses. The cheapest place to refuel was at the Esso service station -- branded as Tesco Express -- on the A40 near Eynsham, which charged 82.9p.

People in west Oxfordshire are increasingly prepared to travel as far as Swindon to take advantage of the cheaper prices offered by supermarkets. Asda in Swindon, like the Tesco superstore in Didcot, was charging 79.9p last Thursday.

James Prately, of Queen Emma's Dyke, Witney, said: "We do most of our shopping in Swindon at either the Sainsbury's or the Asda and it's usually four or five pence cheaper. I was hoping there would be a petrol station at this new Asda -- it's unfair that people in Witney are paying such a high price for fuel." Asda spokesman Mark Brown confirmed that the new store the company wants to open in Witney would not include a petrol station. Supermarkets with a filling station can charge less for petrol because they hope they will replace the profit as people shop at the same time as refuelling.

Other filling stations will drop the cost of their petrol if they are competing with a nearby supermarket, but if, as in Witney, there are no supermarkets with forecourts, they will not lower prices.

Sophie Foale from Esso, which sells petrol through the Tesco Express stations in the area, said: "Generally we look in a three-mile radius, and we'll monitor our competitors within that and try and stay competitive.

"When people go to a petrol station and they see the price on the pole they think it all goes to the oil companies -- about 75 to 80 per cent goes to the Government.

"Our margins are very tiny."