Boyle welcomes Fuel Saving Stamp Scheme for Strabane

Sinn Féin West Tyrone MLA Michaela Boyle has welcomed an initiative being undertaken by Strabane Community Project to establish a “Fuel Saving Stamps Scheme” within Strabane town.

She said, “I very much welcome this Fuel Stamp Saving Scheme being undertaken by Strabane Community Project and fully support the objective of this scheme as an effort to help reduce fuel poverty. “Similar schemes are in place in many other districts, including in neighboring Omagh, and are an invaluable mechanism in helping people to budget towards their oil heating costs. “The template employed elsewhere enables people to buy £5 stamps from participating retail outlets and place these on a card to build up credit. The stamps are then accepted by participating oil companies towards the cost of the fuel bill and I hope that the scheme can be embraced as widely as possible locally. “The Public Health Agency has offered Council £5000 to support a fuel poverty initiative in the district in this current financial year and last night, councillors were unanimous in their backing of an application to the Agency requesting that Strabane Community Project be the delivery agents of a pilot fuel saving scheme for central heating oil and that Council would also contribute £1000 towards getting this pilot up and running “The pilot will run until the end of March 2013 and, if deemed successful, Strabane Community Project plans to extend it throughout the wider district.