PRIORITY has been given to council departments finding enough fuel supplies to see them through any future crisis.

It follows the recent stand-off at oil refineries across the country which almost crippled motorists, businesses and emergency services.

Bath and North East Somerset Council has met to discuss how it would deal with such an emergency again, pending the expected panic-buying as the next deadline for action approaches.

Councillors have been told of the impact it had on local life and what action may be taken to ensure any future action will not hit as hard.

Early figures suggest that car parking income dropped by around £40,000 during September's crisis and visitor income from the Roman Baths fell by around £5,000.

B&NES itself will have to find an unbudgeted £9,000 to cover the unexpected costs of extra fuel purchases, vehicle hire, storage and administrative costs.

A report said: "An event such as this places a large burden on staff resources across the council, not only in dealing with the crisis but for those staff left to carry on normal working.

"It is to the credit of all of our staff that they worked professionally and effectively through this period.

"There will be an inevitable delay in the provision of some services that were disrupted by the problems and staff are working hard to resolve these."

However, the report warned: "The council's success in achieving a co-ordinated response to such a threat is crucial to the delivery of all services and the ability to provide the community leadership role expected by the public at such times."

During the emergency, B&NES had swiftly set up a crisis team to establish a list of the most important services and people most at risk.

Key priority services were identified, such as home to school transport, refuse collection, emergency repairs and call-out staff.

Other non-priority services such as mobile libraries, travel to council meetings and building maintenance would be suspended if the situation worsened.

A system of fuel vouchers was devised, which was then shared with hospitals and emergency staff.

The report concluded: "Although November 13 has been given as the deadline date we anticipate that there will be a degree of panic buying prior to this time and therefore we aim to have our systems in place well in advance."