Councils in Devon say they haven’t experienced issues with fuel supplies and that services are operating as normal.

The country has been hit by days of queues at petrol stations and some forecourts running out of fuel.

The crisis began after fears a lorry driver shortage would hit supplies, triggering a surge in demand.

Business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng insists the situation is “stabilising” while members of the fuel industry said there were “early signs that the crisis at pumps is ending,” with fewer petrol stations out of fuel.

Councils in Devon, which require large amounts of fuel to run service vehicles including bin lorries, have not reported any problems.

A spokesperson for Devon County Council said: “We’re not experiencing the same significant challenges that other parts of the country are seeing, but the multi-agency partners of the Local Resilience Forum are watching the situation carefully and would encourage the public to continue to fuel their cars and vehicles as normal.”

An Exeter City Council spokesperson added: “We are not aware of any difficulties caused by the fuel issue to any of our services or our staff at the present time.”

Mid Devon councillors were told this week that it has a contingency plan for fuel shortages – previously put in place as one of the risks of Brexit – and the authority has more than a week’s worth of fuel available.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson still urges the public to “go about their business in the normal way."

He added: “We now are starting to see the situation improve, we’re hearing from industry that supply is coming back onto the forecourt in the normal way.”