BEAM

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Minutes of the Beam Management Committee Meeting, held on 18th November 2008 are available here in

.pdf format

If you would like a copy in a different style, please email me

With over 300 members, BEAM has been able to negotiate an exclusive arrangement with Total Butler in Devizes for the supply of heating oil. On joining BEAM (Which is free - there is no fee involved), members are quoted an exclusive BEAM price by Total Butler for heating oil when they need further supplies. Their price is always very competitive and generally matches or beats the best price that can be found on the Internet. In addition, Total Butler have agreed to donate 0.25p of every Litre sold to BEAM members to be used to support a range of organisations within the village – this enables BEAM to distribute some £1,500 annually to groups within the village. Members are able to vote to decide which organisations should receive funding.

BEAM

BEAM (Burbage Energy Action Management) is an informal grouping of residents of Burbage and the surrounding areas. It seeks to facilitate the cost effective purchase of domestic heating oil and also to provide funding to local groups within the village.

For further information about BEAM and the simple joining procedure contact:

Mervyn Jones

Membership Secretary

01672 810576. (Membership Enquiries)

Martin Hamer

Treasurer and Secretary

01672 810032

Letter to the Times newspaper

By Martin Hamer, Chairman of BEAM

The full, unabridged version

DOING THE BEST WE CAN…

We all read a lot about the fact that people should regularly investigate switching their energy (Gas/Electricity) supplier on a regular basis via a number of helpful comparison web sites. But what about the tens of thousands of people who live in rural communities who have to rely on oil for their heating? No such web based comparison facility is available to them and, with the price of oil being, like its chemical composition - rather volatile, and subject to the whims of commodity traders, do they have any realistic options to optimise the way in which they can obtain best value?

The answer is less clear cut than with gas and electricity but one community has adopted a novel approach to the supply issue. Burbage, a small village south of Marlborough in Wiltshire - which has no piped gas - has come up with a scheme that seems to benefit heating oil consumers and its own community. Here is how it works.

In 2002, local resident, Rodney Stone sought the support of two colleagues - David Line and Ian Warren - to see if there was any local support for establishing a “purchasing” consortium amongst the residents to increase their purchasing power. This followed from Rodney Stone winning a Millennium Awards Fellowship scheme in 2000 for a visit to South America, which triggered the initial idea.

Encouraged by the results of informal feedback, they decided to establish an informal group called “BEAM – Burbage Energy Action Management – to try and secure bulk purchasing discounts from local/regional heating oil suppliers. Contact with local residents obtained a commitment to the scheme and a number of oil suppliers were approached to see if they would be interested in offering an advantageous price to members of the consortium. After a relatively short consultation process, Total Butler (based in Devizes) agreed to offer any member of BEAM an advantageous price per litre if they purchased heating oil as a member - and to give BEAM £00.25p (0.25p) per litre purchased for it to distribute to local voluntary groups/charities operating within the village.

Run on an entirely voluntary basis, BEAM now has in excess of 330 members and has been able to distribute over £8,000 to local groups to enhance their work in the community to the benefit of all. People signing up to join BEAM (For a minimum of one year) do not pay any membership fee and can, if they wish, purchase their heating oil from any supplier – there is no “tie in”. Over 90% of BEAM members choose, however, to buy their oil through the consortium and, last year, for example, BEAM members purchased over 650,000 litres of heating oil enabling it to distribute over £1,600 to five of the six local organisations seeking support. These included Riding for the Disabled and the village Surgery amongst others, and, in previous years, the Village Hall and local Primary School were also beneficiaries – members voting for their preferences in rank order.

Martin Hamer, BEAM’s Treasurer, regularly monitors the supply price per litre against the best available price on the Internet and the BEAM price is, invariably, competitive.

So, it seems that there are ways in which those restricted to oil fired heating can at least obtain good value in their purchasing strategy whilst, at the same time, securing concomitant benefits for their local community.

For further information contact

Dr Martin Hamer

Treasurer

BEAM

20 Marlborough Road

Burbage

SN8 3AU

Email: martinhamer@onetel.net

For the most up-to-date price...

The latest oil price for BEAM members can be found on the forum - follow this link

Latest BEAM price