The heating oil saga

Yesterday, Audlem Online published a story that may be of concern to all those having to buy heating oil. It was based largely on an investigation by the Sunday Times.

As regular readers will know, we have published a number of stories describing the work of the Oil Baron, aka Kevin Dawson, who negotiates prices and arranges local deliveries for an increasing number of local residents in Audlem, Church Minshull and Bunbury. The resident still pays the oil company directly. He says, referring to yesterday's story:

"I am not aware of any such potential fraud experiences within our group of members. In going single source with DA Roberts, we are supporting a "local" family business and hope for our sake it stays that way.

"There are many testimonials on Roberts' web site as to customer satisfaction and members joining our group have been happy to hear that we deal with Roberts as some have done so for many years.

"So far I have heard only praise for Roberts' service and friendliness of their drivers and office staff. I am totally surprised by the exposure that Boiler Juice is owned by DCC and it's perhaps why even their prices, when I have checked, have been way above Roberts.

"I am aware that GForce, whom we used to use, have been taken over and according to their web site GB Oils would seem to now be their head office operation so it looks like another DCC conquest. It explains how all negotiation on price ceased after the take over as I used to be able to discuss with Sonia and squeeze a bit more off on occasions.

"Meanwhile our Audlem membership continues to increase with 91 being the latest count.
Our latest purchase was for 66,500 litres at 49.45p per litre plus VAT @ 5% (which will not increase, some good news) It would be interesting to know if any non-member Audlem residents paid much above this.

"I have accepted that many elderly people are not on email but have extended membership to them if a neighbour member acts as a conduit and keeps them informed of top-up dates , prices etc. I do not want to leave out the more vulnerable in our society as they may be most in need of help with lower heating oil costs.

"I will do my bit to help with keeping costs down"

If you are interest in joining or simply getting more information, please email kevin@jkdawson.co.uk">kevin@jkdawson.co.uk

An Audlem resident contacted Audlem Online yesterday to say: "On 15th December I had a delivery of 1000 litres of oil from GForce at 61p per litre. On the same day a colleague in Audlem had a delivery from the Oil Baron at 46.9p per litre. A difference of £141 on a tank of heating fuel. Needless to say I have signed up with Oil Baron!"

This article is from our news archive. As a result pictures or videos originally associated with it may have been removed and some of the content may no longer be accurate or relevant.