Rural fuel

I would like to know what MPS and MSPS are doing to support the many thousands of Borderers who not only rely heavily on oil-based fuels for their cars, but also to heat their and provide them with hot water.

We, like many others in rural areas, do not have access to the gas network, so have for a number of years used heating oil (kerosene) as our method for heating and hot water provision.

Now is the time of the year when we would usually fill up our heating oil tank, because typically in the warmer weather, the kerosene prices are at their lowest.

This year we are faced with a tank refill bill of more than £1,800, compared to last year’ s cost of closer to £600! We have waited in the vain hope that the the Government would either reduce the VAT payable on heating fuels to zero per cent from five per cent, or at the very least, reduce the fuel levy further than the miserable amount the Chancellor announced at his most recent budget.

We do not have the luxury of being able to manage without our own cars, and like the many tens of thousands of similar households, we are 100 per cent reliant on them because the local public transport network is so woefully inadequate.

We do not have ready access to the wide range of discount stores or supermarkets compared to our urban neighbours so we also pay far more each week by having to rely on higher priced “convenience” stores.

Finally, Scottish Borders, like other rural locations, also has the lowest wage rates compared to urban conurbations, so inflated prices and higher overheads have a major impact on household budgets.

It is about time somebody thought it a good idea to “level up” the conditions under which rural communities find themselves living in these straitened times.

STEPHEN G BONNER Selkirk, Scottish Borders