How does an ‘oil club’ work?

Grants are now available to Limavady Community groups who might wish to set up an ‘oil club’, an innovative scheme developed in Ballymena to save money.
CLUB COMBATS FUEL POVERTY: Members of Glenravel Oil Club and Glenravel Cllr Paul Maguire pictured at a Tackling Fuel Poverty Together in Stormonts Long Gallery.CLUB COMBATS FUEL POVERTY: Members of Glenravel Oil Club and Glenravel Cllr Paul Maguire pictured at a Tackling Fuel Poverty Together in Stormonts Long Gallery.
CLUB COMBATS FUEL POVERTY: Members of Glenravel Oil Club and Glenravel Cllr Paul Maguire pictured at a Tackling Fuel Poverty Together in Stormonts Long Gallery.

Following the success of the ‘Glenravel Oil Club’ in Ballymena, a grant scheme has been set up for groups in the Limavady, Coleraine, Ballymoney and Moyle council areas to follow their lead.

The Glenravel Oil Club works delivers significant savings to its members. One advocate of implementing an oil club in Limavady is DUP councillor Alan Robinson. He said: “Four in ten of our households are unable to keep warm with older people having to go to bed to try to stay warm. There are a number of schemes designed to help tackle fuel poverty such as the Warm Homes Scheme, boiler replacement schemes, home insulation and energy efficiency schemes, all of which offer support and impacts in their own way as part of the armoury targeting fuel poverty.” He went on to highlight the benefits of the oil club idea and encouraged anyone interested in setting up something similar in Limavady to contact the DUP constituency office for additional information.

Funding for the recently announced grants scheme has been secured from the Public Health Agency to allow this pilot scheme to be rolled out to other communities within the Council areas of Ballymena, Ballymoney, Carrickfergus, Coleraine, Larne, Limavady and Moyle.

Anne Donaghy, Chair of the ‘council cluster’ where the grants are available and Chief Executive of Ballymena Borough Council, said: “Fuel poverty is a real issue, especially in rural communities where there is a heavy reliance on oil to heat homes. Tackling fuel poverty head on by finding practical steps to address its causes on the ground is a crucial part of improving health and well-being and making a real difference to peoples’ everyday lives.

“During the pilot scheme, local people told us that they are largely dependent on oil to heat their homes, and that they struggle to be able to afford to fill their tank, often paying over the odds when forced to buy oil drums at a high cost.

“The club allows the community and local oil suppliers to work together to make sure that people can better afford to keep warm and well. Community bulk-buying schemes mean people can save money even when ordering smaller quantities, and demonstrates the power of partnership working between local government, the Public Health Agency and the local community in improving quality of life of our citizens.”

Local Glenravel oil club member and Chair of Glenravel and District Community and Residents Association, Marion Maguire said: “The scheme has been a real success in Glenravel. We have found that single parents, low income households and pensioners in harder to heat, older properties are benefiting from buying smaller quantities of oil at competitive prices, therefore saving money and budgeting better for other essentials.”

Grants of £700 are available from Ballymena Council.