A community oil buying club for Cornwall is in the running for a £60k community buying innovation prize after making it through to the final stage of the ‘Buy Better Together Challenge’.
Community Energy Plus’s (CEP) oil buying club, which was launched last autumn, is the only project in the south west to make it onto the shortlist.
The community challenge prize, which was launched earlier in the year by Co-operatives UK and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) to encourage more people to think collectively and combine their buying power, received a total of 110 applications from all UK regions.
Nicola McCheyne, project delivery team manager at CEP, said: “We are delighted to have reached the mentoring stage of the challenge. Community Energy Club was developed to empower our society’s most vulnerable householders, and ensure that everyone can access competitively priced heating oil. The opportunity to develop this into a robust business plan is very exciting.”
The overall winner will be chosen by the panel of experts in November 2012.
