Thousands of protesters are planning to slow down a huge section of the A1 tomorrow (June 17) to campaign against soaring fuel prices.

Two thousand motorists are expected to take part in a slow drive from Stannington, near Morpeth to Wetherby on the A1 on Friday afternoon.

The event is being organised by car enthusiast group Summer Madness and has drawn huge support so far online.

Jay Garside, an events manager from Newcastle and member of Summer Madness who has organised the protest, told The Northern Echo they were planning a ‘legal’ and ‘peaceful’ protest.

Jay, 45, said: “As a group full of car enthusiasts we all spend a lot on our cars and a big part of that is fuel. We said when fuel prices get to £2 a litre that’s the point to stand up and protest and do something about it.

“Six years ago we held a protest in the same format as we are tomorrow and it worked.

Read more: North East Tory & Labour MPs call for action on fuel prices

“The feedback I’m getting from Facebook is that everybody wants to do something but no one knows what to do.

“We know what to do so we decided to lead by example and show people how to do a legal, peaceful protest, not blocking roads or petrol forecourts but slowing down the A1.

“We are showing people how to behave, what works and what gets the level of support we are getting.”

The protest convoy is set to leave Stannington services in Northumberland at 3.30pm on Friday afternoon and slowly make its way down to Wetherby services around 8pm, travelling at 30mph.

The protesters will then turn around and head back to Kingston Park, near Newcastle.

Read more: Stanley Travel boss calls for tax changes as fuel prices rise

Mr Garside added: “We are expecting around about 2,000 vehicles to come along but it could be anywhere up to four or five thousand.

“We have lorries coming, haulage companies, we are getting an amount of support that we never expected.

“There are people coming from Hull just to drive with us and slow down the A1. They are travelling three hours up just to drive back down again to take part.”

Fuel prices continued to climb over the last week with the average cost of unleaded reaching 187.01p per litre and 193.30p per litre for diesel on Thursday (June 15).

Last week BP at Washington Services on the A1(M), which the convoy will pass on its journey, was spotted charging over £2 per litre to refuel.

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