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Review of the Rural Petrol Stations Grant Scheme Final Report
8 SUMMARY OF BENEFITS
In the preceding three chapters, we have reviewed the social, economic and environmental benefits of the RPSGS, focusing predominantly on the benefits arising from the 'average' application to date. In this section, we briefly summarise the benefits that have been identified, comparing the situation with that where the RPSGS were not in place.
These benefits relate to the closure of a typical rural petrol station. The closure of all petrol stations within an area or the only petrol station on an island will have significantly greater disbenefits that are not quantified here.
Environmental benefits
There is no evidence that the RPSGS has produced local environmental benefits for reduced groundwater pollution or vapour emissions over and above the minimum required by legislation.
It has, however, enabled some petrol stations that would otherwise have been forced to cease trading by these regulations to remain trading.
A larger number of petrol stations trading will reduce the total amount of vehicle mileage travelled in rural Scotland. It is estimated that, on average, retention of a rural petrol station will save 280,000 miles per annum in total, this being around 5% of the total mileage of residents and tourists in the vicinity of the petrol station site. In total, this is equivalent to an estimated 30,000 of external benefits per station per annum.
Without the RPSGS, there would be almost no LPG supply points in rural Scotland and the potential environmental benefits not realisable. Although demand for LPG is currently at a very low level, many sites have only been in place for a short time and, provided the number of users of the fuel increases, could expect substantial increases in demand in future.
Social benefits
Many local residents would be affected by the closure of a rural petrol station. There would be direct impacts on employment and the financial cost of increased travel costs associated with fuel costs would average about 0.5% of net earnings.
Some groups of people would be more affected by closure than others. The biggest impacts would be felt by older people and those on low incomes who are car dependent.
Many petrol stations provide a range of other services to the local community and these are vulnerable to closure if fuel sales cease. These services, including access to vehicle fuel, are seen by many to contribute to a reasonable quality of life.
In particular, the closure of a highly isolated petrol station or the only one on an island will have significant impacts on quality of life.
Economic benefits
Evaluation of those projects funded to date show that vehicle operating cost, time and environmental benefits are, on average, more than five times higher than the net cost to government (including RPSGS payment and loss of tax revenue). This demonstrates a good level of return on investment compared to many transport projects.
Rural petrol stations, on average, maintain four FTE jobs. Closure of a rural petrol station would not lead to significant changes in total expenditure at a regional level, but would in general cause a net migration of some expenditure from the rural to the urban economies.
Petrol station closure would lead to increased transport costs to other local businesses. There is no evidence, however, that the closure of an individual petrol station would alter tourist behaviour noticeably.
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