After the filling frenzy of the weekend, a casual drive past the Shell garage on the Devon Doorway roundabout revealed a full forecourt, but no cars backing up on the Chester High Road or clogging up the roundabout itself.

At a stretch the scene could have been a typical busy period for the service station.

This comes as national signs suggest panic buying in the UK is on the wane.

The Petrol Retailers Association, which represents 5,500 out of the UK's 8,000 filling stations, told the BBC it is seeing the number of cars visiting petrol stations beginning to stabilise.

Some stations that saw visits increase by 500% on Saturday are now around 40% busier than on normal days.

But the Association added there is still little improvement in the numbers of petrol stations which are out of one grade or all grades of fuel.

The Army remains on standby to help solve fuel delivery problems, but the government hopes it will not need to call military drivers into action.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has fended off criticism that ministers were caught napping by the present fuel supply debacle, claiming the government "put 18 different steps in place which stretch right the way back to spring" to address the issues.

"The system was just about coping until last weekend and it would have been capable of continuing to do so," he said.

"Unfortunately, as we have seen with toilet rolls and other things, once people start to pursue a particular item, it can quickly escalate.

"But there is only so much petrol you can transfer into tanks. That is starting to work its way through."

For a moment I thought he meant the Army was going to use tanks to transport fuel - but of course that would be daft.

On the other hand, here's a good idea - perhaps Elon Musk could invent a car that runs on charcoal and coal.

The Devon Doorway Shell garage always seems to have plentiful stocks of these.