Villagers who bought disused petrol station now save £1,000 a year
Four years ago there were celebrations in a Scottish village when petrol pumps finally returned after a decade.
Residents of Newcastleton close to the border were forced to make a 40-mile round trip to nearby towns just to fill up their tanks before it reopened.
With a population of about 850 people, most of whom are self-employed or work in agriculture, trade began to suffer.
Taking matters into their own hands, they bought the original petrol station site for an undisclosed sum and raised funds to allow the project to proceed.
With petrol prices continuing to rise, the project is saving families as much as £1,000 a year, also sparing them from fuel poverty.
Community council chairman Greg Cuthbert said: ‘People usually have three or four cars per family, it’s mental.
‘It has been a huge saving, around £900 to £1,000 a year. There’s so much more expense to being in a rural area.
‘We live in a beautiful place, the kids can go out and play and you can leave doors unlocked. It’s like the 1950s. Crime here is a rarity.
‘Everybody got used to getting fuel in Carlisle or Hawick.
‘With an elderly population, you would probably get someone taking the car there for them and bringing it back for them. They mostly use their cars in the area.
‘We are an agricultural area, people who live in a farming community were having to go into town to fill up jerry cans for quad bikes.’
Newcastleton now boasts two unleaded petrol pumps, two diesel pumps, an electric vehicle point, and air and windscreen wash.
The station is now processing 21,000 litres per week, and between 400,000 and 500,000 litres per year.
Initially, a windfall of £320,000 in funding including from the National Lottery paid for the renovations – including a new forecourt and fuel tanks.
But now money from every sale is reinvested into Newcastleton’s community projects.
The return of the petrol pumps has made a huge difference to the trade in the village and businesses are ‘thriving’.
Mr Cuthbert described it as ‘a godsend’, adding: ‘The community has been here 250 years. It is definitely the way to go.
‘We have got a good relationship with the fuel supplier. We rent them the fuel station and they manage it.
‘It’s the first time it’s ever been done. Gulf run it and we don’t have a great deal of risk.’
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