A Dunedin company plans to return petrol pumps to Arrowtown.
RD Petroleum is in talks with neighbours of a bare site on the corner of Wiltshire and Berkshire Sts where it plans to install an unmanned fuelling station.
A resource consent application is expected to be lodged within weeks.
Mobil removed its pumps from Arrowtown in 2007 and Auckland-based Makaraka Estate, which subsequently bought the Shaw's Garage site, announced plans for a $2.6 million development but it was never realised.
RD Petroleum chairman Les Wilson said his company's mission was to return petrol - something he called an essential service - to South Island communities.
It already owns pumps in places such as Te Anau, Tarras, Ranfurly, Kurow and Hyde.
It expects to spend between $400,000 and $500,000 and is spending extra money to put the tanks underground, considering the town's heritage character.
-by David Williams
