FLEETS are holding back the growth of Britain's liquefied petroleum gas refuelling infrastructure, an LPG supplier has claimed at Fleet Show 2000. Flogas spokesman David Bryce told delegates at the show's 'Running a Green Fleet' Forum, sponsored by PricewaterhouseCoopers in association with Manheim Europe, that his company was prepared to install filling facilities wherever there was sufficient demand, but accused operators of failing to make the demand.

The company provides on-site bunkering for 20 local authorities and some of the largest gas fleets in the UK, among them Yorkshire Water and Securicor Omega, and has installed refuelling facilities at 77 retail sites around the country. Current estimates are that there will be about 750 public refuelling sites around the country by 2003. But Bryce said: 'We'll supply wherever there is demand, but fleet managers need to walk the talk and buy some LPG vehicles. The ball's in their court. The LPG infrastructure is down to demand as well as supply and this is a demand-driven market.'

However, fellow forum speaker John Bradley, who runs Hampshire Constabulary's fleet of 760 vehicles - 32 of them lpg - said: 'The problem is that suppliers need guaranteed volume to warrant a filling site and that's not practical for fleets like ours which may have 10 vehicles in one place, 12 in another and four in the next. It's frustrating. We need confidence. I will continue to lobby fuel companies and manufacturers to improve the infrastructure.'