Heating Oil syndicate

[magic cochin]

We live in a village without mains gas so most houses are heated using oil. I know we are supposed to be getting into sustainable energy sources, but it's going to be a while before this changes and in the mean time our fuel oil bills are getting bigger and bigger!

Anyway - on Radio 4 the other week I heard someone being interviewed about a syndicate he'd set up to buy oil for people in his village, result - cheaper fuel because the tanker would be able to visit the village once and fill up lots of tanks.

So my OH is planning to set up a syndicate in our village. There are about 200 houses and well over half get fuel oil delivered by tanker, fewer visits by the tankers would reduce traffic on our country lanes. As well as reduced bills for the customers the syndicate could negociate a payment from the oil company which would go to a charity or "good cause" the syndicate members wish to support.

Do any of you belong to a bulk buying syndicate? or have friends who run one?

Maybe there are other things our syndicate could supply - any ideas?

C :)

[Oola]

I think I read about this in an issue of CL.

With other bulk buying ideas - perhaps veggies that store well could be bought from farmers? E.g. onions and potatoes. My mum does a small-scale version of this in the winter, she goes up to a place called GM Growers in Norfolk and bulk buys potatoes in a sack for the family, then distributes them out. I think it costs about £6 for a big sack so works out a lot cheaper than buying anywhere else. Of course, this summer we'll be knee-high in potatoes from our veg plots and allotment!

[franbee]

Our local Scouts make a trip to an orchard in the Autumn and bring back a van load of apples, eaters and cookers, and sell them in the neighbourhood, presumably covering expenses and making a bit for their funds.

[jazzactivist]

The houses in our village are also heated using oil, Magic cochin, so I totally emphathise with your situation. Oil was always about 4 times more expensive than gas and now the price has really gone through the roof. Our oil tank cost £500 to fill last time and in the winter this would last for about 6-7 weeks! I think that an oil syndicate might be a good idea, but whether it will be much cheaper to order this way may be doubtful. Our whole village uses a single local oil company who have the monopoly around here and they ask us to team up wth neighbours for deliveries, otherwise it would be even more expensive! The smaller companies won't deliver here as it is too far out of their way.

In the village where I used to live we had a Wholefood Co-op which bought wholefood and complementary therapy items in bulk and then distributed them in quantities needed. You placed your order and then the volunteers went to buy the items from a green wholesaler. This worked out very cheap, even with the cost of petrol, and people on their own, older people, and small scale therapists really benefitted. Our Women's Network is looking into starting up a LETS for women, as there are so many women on their own in rural settings.

[magic cochin]

We've discovered 6 local villages who have oil syndicates, some just go for saving money others combine this with raising money (members give a proportion of what they save to a good cause) One of the villages (about twice as big as ours) raised £1700 last year for resurfacing the community hall car park. There are about 14 oil companies delivering to the area and we hope to get savings of at least 3p/litre.

We're getting a good response so we're delivering a leaflet round the village this weekend and we hope to get it up and running by the end of March.

C :)