A PETITION to support local people concerned about the price of LPG gas has been backed by MP for West Devon and Torridge, Geoffrey Cox. 

The petition will also feature on the popular BBC consumer affairs programme, Don't Get Done, get Dom and will be broadcast early next year to help consumers get good deals when purchasing goods.

The programme recently carried out an investigation into LPG prices and their effects in Winkleigh and surrounding villages.

Users of LPG gas are often in rural and remote areas where they cannot connect to the gas grid, which has led to prices being excessively high.

The petition calls for the government to do more to make LPG pricing tariffs transparent and also to appoint a regulator, such as Ofgem, to ensure that users of LPG receive the same protection as other consumers.

Geoffrey Cox has spoken in the House of Commons on these issues in recent months and supported a private members bill on fuel poverty, which received cross party support.

Mr Cox said: 'This is an excellent petition and a timely one.

'I have been urging the government to act on high fuel costs in our area for years but it has not listened to.

'Nobody should be placed in the situation of having to choose between whether to heat their house or to buy food, and yet one in five people in the countryside risks having to make precisely that decision.'

See the petition at http://www.geoffreycox.co.uk">www.geoffreycox.co.uk Copies can be printed and sent to 2 Bridge Chambers, Lower Bridge Street, Bideford, Devon, EX39 2BU.