Local business saves Christmas for man with no heating due to rail strikes

A Sulhamstead man was left with no heating during the busiest and coldest period of the year — until a local company stepped in.

Andrew Tanner, a handyman from Sulhamstead, placed an order with a national supplier at the beginning of December.

But with Christmas imminent, he had still received no update about his delivery. With his fuel tank almost empty, one local supplier made a special effort to help him — on Christmas Eve.

"It was the appalling lack of care that annoyed me more than anything else," said Mr Tanner.

"I emailed them and nothing. I emailed a further 15 times and called on three occasions, with no answer."

Owner of Aldermaston based JPS Fuels, Jonathan Pinnock, responded to Mr Tanner's plea for help on Facebook, despite his own worrying supply issues.

"We are struggling to get any heating oil at the moment," said Mr Pinnock.

"We had loads of calls over Christmas as there were a lot of people let down by the national suppliers. It just got to the stage where we were having to turn people away."

Mr Pinnock, who normally collects fuel at Theale, has been travelling overnight as far as Bristol and Brighton to source his supply.

Mr Tanner was using his remaining fuel just to run hot water until Mr Pinnock's last minute delivery.

"It saved our Christmas really because we could put our heating back on," he said. "We are very grateful to Jonathan. The national company have since written to me and apologised."

But his is not an isolated case. Managing director of Marsh Fuels in Newbury, Carrie Marsh, added: "The point to stress is that there is no national fuel shortage. It's down to the rail strikes, because the terminals are not receiving the fuel in by rail and therefore they cannot get it to us by road.

"We have been completely transparent and are doing our best for our customers, particularly the vulnerable ones.

"Some new customers are being told by other oil companies there is no problem, but our suppliers have confirmed this is the case."

Ms Marsh further explained how on a normal basis, her company processes one tanker per day. Whereas, she has only received three tanks over the the past three weeks. Fortunately, the company holds it own storage tanks.

"We went into rationing mode so it could be used to reach as many people as possible," she said. "We have been in this position for several weeks now since it started with the hard frost combined with the Christmas rush and then the rail strikes.

"We're still waiting for further fuel to come in while the strike action is ongoing."

Mr Tanner now has enough fuel to last a year.