News / Join up to bring down fuel prices
SHETLAND residents with oil heating are being encouraged to get together to cut the price of filling their tank.
Shetland is the only part of the UK which has not set up a fuel group, where people club together to order their fuel collectively.
Now Fair Fuel Solutions (FFS), a group of fuel campaigners in Stornoway, are inviting folk to fill in a survey so they can compare heating oil prices across the isles.
The anonymous survey – to be found here – asks people who they order their heating oil from, how much it costs and how much they have delivered.
It also invites people to fill in their contact details so they can be put in touch with others in their area to form a local fuel club.
By Friday last week FFS had received around 70 responses quoting prices ranging from 64p to 76.p per litre.
This week in Shetland, Highland Fuels are charging 66.2p, while Scottish Fuels are charging 65.85p per litre. These prices fluctuate every few days.
FFS are encouraging people to set up fuel groups of 10 to 12 households, which can group together to purchase their fuel.
The group says people could gain “significant discounts” this way.
An FFS spokesman said: “We want people to fill in the survey because the more response we get, the better we can analyse the results.”
He said that in the western isles some community councils were now showing an interest in forming fuel clubs to try and bring down the price of heating oil in the isles.
Fuel clubs are being set up throughout the UK every week and joining a national organisation to bring down the price of heating oil for consumers.
So far five fuel clubs have been set up in Orkney and five in the western isles, but no one in Shetland has yet taken this step.
FFS are running a vigourous campaign to combat the high price of fuel in the Scottish isles and have accused Scottish Fuels, who dominate the market, of profiteering.
Scottish Fuels have always denied the charge, but are currently being investigated along with other major suppliers by the Office of Fair Trading as part of a wider probe into fuel prices that is due to report in January.
One Stornoway petrol station has broken with Scottish Fuels and is now offering cheaper petrol than his competitors, who have been told they too can break with their contracts.
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