An online petition has been started calling for Tesco to have a filling station in Stornoway. Although I have not been involved in setting it up, I have been asked to publicise the link on this blog so:
http://ipetitions.com/petition/tesco-filling-station-stornoway
Well done whoever decided to start a petition …I hope Tesco will never be prevented from selling fuel if they want to do so …so …lets hope they want to sell fuel in SY – I’ll be signing deffo
We should all enmass attend meetings in the white house that discuss any such plans …or will they be held in private ??? Hmmm
I wonder how many of those who sign are those who complain about incomers or complain about people who go off island to do their shopping?
Unless Tesco bring in their own shipped supply they will still be over a barrel to the GB Oils Conocco Petroleum supply chartel so would have to sell fuel as lost leader to increase stores till receipts. I.E. All Coop customers go to shop at Tesco so they can fill up on way out. As a regular user of Tesco (only after Coop shafted mobile van wholesales) I would think they would have to commit to a bigger store or 24/7 opening.
Last GB Oil Public meeting was about 50 people including Coucillors, would be Councillors and party faithfull from both sides. Hardly Western Isle protest ennmass. We only do enmass at last orders on Saturdays.
I think it’s a brilliant idea! If tesco do come up then they’d have to take 5pence a litre off which would meen we’d possibly have the cheapest fuel in the country! Now that would be something wouldn’t it?!
absolute nonsense, everybody wants cheaper fuel but everyone is comparing prices with cities, not rural areas.
As for Tesco making things cheaper, check out their mainland prices compared to what they are selling here, last time i looked they were a business not a charity
Ruaraidh, Indeed they are a business and a competitive one at that. If they sold petrol here they would create competition which would undoubtedly reduce prices.
Prices do vary across Scotland – They are high where there is no choice and no competition. Where there is competition the prices are low – simple, irrespective of city or town or rural areas.
It’s what the OFT are looking into nationally.
When the fuel discount of 5p was introduced – the difference between Stornoway and the mainland was around 8p a litre for both petrol and diesel. That difference has now doubled to 16p a litre, compared to the prices charged in Inverness at the beginning of September. Can someone explain why that should be?
Council plan cuts to tackle £6 million deficit 6/9/12 -Heb News!
My Advice is to the Councillors. Take a pay cut! Most of you have already got your pension , so you can do without the extra financial package the council is giving you rather than sacking some poor sod who has a family and would have to leave the island to find another job……
Most current councillors have two jobs anyway!
Edward: What has that to do with the price of bread – or fuel?
Mr. Blue: What they need to do is halve the number of councillors. There are far too many and cutting the number would save us a fortune.
Get rid of Island allowance too, I & many other live & work on the island but don’t get any allowance for it, why should every council employee get it? That would save a fortune for the council, but they do also need to get rid of some of the dead wood in the council too & the big knobs take a pay cut from their near on £100k+ salaries, surely they can well afford to take a 10% pay cut rather than pick on the people that maybe work hard but as on £15k -£20k salary.
Posters write constantly (in various threads) about the Council saving money by cutting the number of councillors. I find it difficult to imagine, though, that any central decision to reduce the number (and I understand that it would be central and not local) would not also result in a reduction in the relevant grant given to councils by central government. You’d all best think of other ways to save money, I fear.
Back to the petition on Tesco Filling Station – 200 signatures in the first day. Good start!
SPREAD THE WORD by all means you can.
I set a high ambitious target of 2000! So if there are another 1800 angry motorists out there who are not happy paying Stornoway fuel prices (which I think there are) now is the time to sign up.
Tweet it , Facebook it, email it, let people know.
Petition WILL be sent to Tesco and for what it is worth CNES.
Tesco will be asked to take action on this and also to publicise ANY apparent resistance/difficulty met in doing so if they do.
For years people have been banging on about big companies like Tescos pushing local businesses out and how terrible it is and now people are pushing for exactly that. Bet half the people who are desperate to get Tescos to start selling fuel on the Island have complained and moaned about these big companies at some point. Every single business on this Island is penalised due to us living on an Island and the costs of getting products delivered here ( petrol stations included). Do people really think that its the local petrol stations that are conning us???? They are just trying to make a living like the rest of us. If this town carries on the way its going there won’t be a local shop left and then what??? Another big moaning fest by the same people…… Well just remember you were the people pushing for our Island to be taken over by massive greedy companies >:(
Well said Stornoway. However, I have never banged on about big business though, have you? Did you complain about Tesco’s taking over the Safeway/Morrisons/Somerfield store? Probably not. Which big businesses do you choose to complain about?
Scottish Fuels/GB Oils are a BIG business and they have a monopoly on the price of fuel in Stornoway and the outlying areas. That simply is not healthy. The people of these Islands deserve better and we deserve the same choice and competition as anywhere else.
When it comes to greed you need to look at the scottish fuels grabbing of Brogans to see what that topic is all about.
I have actually. I feel the way the likes of Tesco and Asda have taken over so many places is so wrong. I can see that we do need super markets but these huge companies are acting in such a greedy aggressive manor. They make us think they are giving us a good deal but half the time its far from a good deal.
I totally agree about Scottish fuels etc. They need to be taken down a peg or too and there needs to be something done about shocking prices they charge us and the shocking tactics they have used here but I do not think its right to target local businesses and thats what would happen if the Tescos bullies started supplying fuel here.
I would love to back to when my parents were young and towns were busy with local shops offering quality products and service (not just talking about our Island). It seems such a shame that we would rather hand our money over to big giant greedy companies than local businesses. But I am also aware that people are struggling right now and need to find ways of saving money.
I fully accept that lack of competition is a bad thing but you cannot compare a service station selling millions of litres in Inverness with a station selling thousands in the Western Isles, the economics and profit margins are totally different.I agree with the comments about the dangers of promoting the benefits of multi nationals against local businesses, this really is a case of be carefull what you wish for.
The whole fuel debate does get taken out of context, in my own case I will buy 200 litres a month, 5p difference cost £10.00, less than the increase on electricity prices by Scottish and Southern.
Having recently travelled to the South of England there are many places where the cost of fuel is the same if not more than here,
As for the nonsense about Islands Allowance its centrally funded, which means if it was cut it wouldn’t save the Comhairle a penny.
Guga, merely pointing out that may people (with businesses) don’t like people going offisland to do their shopping. Remember that lady on the live broadcast about ferries on a Sunday complaining about how it would hurt her trade and shouldn’t be allowed? Ruining the isles etc, well some of these will be the ones wanting cheap petrol from the biggest player in changing the Sunday trading law in England. A company that works 7 days a week etc. etc. but that doesn’t matter because they don’t do it here. (yet). The hypocrisy of many of the “good christians” on this island is amazing. :-O
Indeed lack of competition is a bad thing, and as far as I can see competition will not come any shape or form other than from Tesco.
Local businesses (other perhaps than the three filling stations) are being badly hurt by fuel costs themselves. Tesco are already here as are the co-op. Supermarkets are I’m afraid a necessity so I don’t have a problem with them opening a fuel outlet. I believe in the short and long term it is the only solution and would be for the good of the vast majority of Islanders, not just a few. Tesco is an important employer here as are the co-op and the previous supermarkets. Local businesses should not be exempt from competition, that is what half the problem is.
I think it is simply disgraceful that our representatives have absolutely nothing to say on the matter of high fuel costs, when they were happy to jump on the OHTG cause, but then there are a few with self interest at mind with way too much influence on what the council as a whole may or may not do.
Ruaraidh, I think in reality you are paying around £360 more for your fuel each year than anyone who is careful about where they buy their fuel from on the mainland. 5p differential simply is not a realistic comparison.
A Tesco filling station is simply the only competition that is ever likely to actually happen, and competition is desperately needed. Even the OFT know that.
What would Tesco gain from opening a fuel station in Stornoway
More customers.
i don’t know why we should petition Tesco’s. The people who we pay(our council) to encourage better fascilities are the people who should be encouraging new business. If our great leader is against new competition Tesco will find it hard to get established.
I think Tesco are more than capable of proceeding and succeeding to supply fuel here. The point of a petition (since the council has shown no interest in addressing the cost of fuel) is to demonstrate that there is a demand for them to do so. How often do Tesco face public opposition to their opening a new development? Well I believe that any development in Stornoway to supply fuel would have great public support.
However, the level of that support will be based on active participation in signing and publicising the petition by as many as possible.
So if you support the petition tell your friends and family.
And where would Tesco build this petrol station?
There is hardly any space to park a car on Saturdays!
There is always space for developers (unless they are in competition with any councilors).