Petrol station celebrates 50 years with golden ticket fuel giveaway

Oakley Service Station, at West Auckland, celebrated its 50th anniversary by giving away ten golden tickets each worth £50 of fuel.
The ten lucky winners were: Angela Morris, Ken Jackson, Jan Brown, Craig White, Ian Graham, Linda Parsons, Peter Fallon, Bruce Hezmalhalch, Neil Carrick and Raymond Embelton.
Oakley’s owners, Joyce and Nicky Porter, have been selling fuel at the Staindrop Road site since 1967, having started out with just three petrol pumps.
Back then, a litre of fuel would set customers back just 6p in today’s money.
The forecourt and shop have recently been modernised, with brand new pumps and an updated electronic till. A makeover is planned for the store in the coming months. 
Tori Sowden, the Porters’ daughter and Oakley’s general manager, said: “We’ve been very lucky to have such a loyal customer base over the past five decades, so to mark this milestone anniversary, we really wanted to thank our customers for their ongoing support. The free fuel giveaway was a great way for us to give a little something back. It was such a fantastic week and it was lovely to get our customers involved in our 50th celebrations.”