Traffic jams across Borehamwood have continued for a fourth day in a row as queues for petrol stations spill out onto the roads.

The town's major roads have been suffering delays since Friday after motorists rushed to fill up their vehicles leading to fuel shortages at forecourts.

Over the weekend, petrol stations in Borehamwood have been forced to close including Tesco, and the BP and Shell garages in Elstree Way after running out of fuel.

Shenley Road and Allum Lane has been gridlocked throughout the day and into the late evening as drivers seek fuel from the Asda garage, while queues for petrol at Morrisons have caused problems on the A1.

Today, these queues at Asda and Morrisons have continued, with Tesco reportedly running out of diesel, according to social media comments.

Borehamwood Times: Traffic jams for the petrol station at Borehamwood Tesco on Saturday morning. Credit: Andrew SmithTraffic jams for the petrol station at Borehamwood Tesco on Saturday morning. Credit: Andrew Smith

Borehamwood councillor Michelle Vince reported on Facebook that she had been in touch with the police in Borehamwood about the "traffic chaos" in the town.

She wrote: "The congestion at the Asda petrol station is the worst I have seen in Borehamwood. I have been contacted by residents struggling to get out of their homes and to and from work."

In an email to Hertsmere chief inspector Mark Bilsdon over the weekend, Cllr Vince asked if "something could be done to help control the situation" adding it is "taking hours to drive just metres".

Meanwhile TV presenter Dan Walker, who is starring in Strictly Come Dancing - filmed at Elstree Studios - tweeted on Friday night: "Huge petrol queues around Borehamwood tonight! Is this the same everywhere? Good time to go electric."

Borehamwood Times: Traffic at the Tesco Borehamwood roundabout on Saturday. Credit: Andrew SmithTraffic at the Tesco Borehamwood roundabout on Saturday. Credit: Andrew Smith

The PA news agency says the panic buying spree of fuel was sparked last week after concerns from BP were leaked that the shortage of lorry drivers could impact upon its ability to keep up with fuel deliveries.

The reports prompted drivers across the country to rush to petrol stations - in some locations in the country, drivers were pictured filling jerry cans with fuel.

It has reached the stage now where some drivers who are desperately in need of petrol are struggling to find a filling station that is open or without a long queue.

Drivers heading to the supermarket have also been disrupted as have bus passengers, with services via Borehamwood running up to 40 minutes late today.

Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng announced on Sunday he was temporarily suspending competition laws to allow the industry to share information so it can target areas where fuel supply is running low.

The move came after Mr Johnson said the Government was creating 5,000 three-month visas for foreign lorry drivers in an attempt to ease the pressure on hauliers which has been blamed over the problems.

A statement by Shell, ExxonMobile and other industry bodies again insisted there was no "national shortage of fuel" and that the pressures on supply were the result of "temporary spikes in customer demand".

Borehamwood Times: A petrol tanker delivering fuel at a Shell garage. Credit: PAA petrol tanker delivering fuel at a Shell garage. Credit: PA

Environment Secretary George Eustice said today: "The most important thing is that people buy petrol as they normally would. There isn’t a shortage. There have been some shortages of HGV drivers getting petrol to forecourts but actually that is quite limited.

"The cause of these current problems is that panic-buying episode and the most important thing is for people to start buying petrol as they normally would.

"There does come a point – as we saw during a previous episode of panic-buying during the pandemic on food – where things settle down and people get used to it, and return to life as normal again.

"The sooner people do that the better. The only reason we don’t have petrol on the forecourts is that people are buying petrol they don’t need."