THIS week's threatened fuel price protest outside Shell's Stanlow refinery came to nothing.

Members of the Fuel Lobby pressure group had invited anyone angry over soaring fuel costs to join them in three days of demonstrations outside refineries and on motorways across the country from 6am on Wednesday.

But apparent lack of interest and a concerted security operation put paid to any disturbance and fuel delivery trucks left the refinery as normal.

Traffic was free to enter Oil Sites Road from the town centre end, where a lone police patrol car stood watch.

Outside the main gate - scene of most of the action during the 2000 protest - a handful of Shell security staff backed by a few police officers stood guard.

At the Ince end of Oil Sites Road two Shell security staff were flagging down vehicles. Those drivers who could prove they worked in the area were allowed through while others were politely asked to divert around Oil Sites Road.

Two demonstrators turned up but were told they had to leave their vehicles and go on foot, while in country lanes near the Ince roundabout there was a substantial media presence.

Andrew Spence, of the Fuel Lobby group, said outside his local refinery at Jarrow on Wednesday: 'If we have achieved anything it is to make the public aware of the situation affecting us. The Government makes millions of pounds in fuel duty.'

But Tom Houghton, leader of the fuel protest outside Stanlow in September 2000, said the protest was always doomed to fail.

'This is a totally uncoordinated protest,' he said, 'it is a sham. There has been a lot of spin and hot air from organisers, and I expect it will fizzle out quickly.'

'They have panicked the public into stocking up their cars, which is crazy. They do not have the public's support. Last time round, we did. The people won't stand for the disruption again.'

Cheshire police said they had no intelligence that Stanlow would be targeted but they still changed the road lay-out to stop protesters. A police spokesman said: 'We have long-term strategies for dealing with protests, including at the refinery.'