FUEL protesters should have called off their picket earlier claims a pensioners' campaigner who fears panic buying could affect old folks.

Founder of the Campaign for the Restoration of Older People's Services (CROPS) Sue Troughton has carried out a survey among the older people who live in the sheltered accommodation in Loveclough where she is warden.

She said: "They are all very concerned about what is going to happen because if there are no buses and taxis can't get fuel then they won't be able to get to the shops and Asda is already struggling to get enough supplies to meet the demands of customers.

"I asked 30 people what they thought and all but three of them said they wouldn't be voting Labour again. Many said they wouldn't be voting at all when it got to the next election.

"They were all very disillusioned with the Government and thought they should have stepped in sooner.

"People have the right to voice their opinions and the old people did think the price of fuel tax was too high, but the protest has gone on too long and it is now threatening the old and the young.

"How are the home carers going to get to the old people if they have no petrol for their cars. They said emergency services will be OK but what about them?"

Sue's husband Jim is a driver with Bubbles, Wipers and Brushes, in Church, and she said unless his firm could find fuel soon his job was under threat.

She said: "I have been to the House of Commons and it is a wonderful place, but doing their jobs down there in London they are not seeing how things affect real people and their real lives.

"If my Jim's job is under threat then hundreds of other people will be in the same boat. It has put the country in jeopardy and affected the old people and the young and the protest should have been called off sooner once they had made their point. Enough is enough."