One Plumber's Fight Against Fuel Duty

Colin Good, a Coventry self-employed plumber is holding a one man protest against the government's fuel tax duty.

Colin is protesting against the ever increasing cost of petrol. As a plumber he has to drive his van to the customers’ site and currently spends well over £70 per week to fill up his van. Many plumbers have swapped their vans to diesel vans that return better gas mileage than traditional petrol vans. However, the cost of diesel vans, as well as the cost of a litre of diesel has gone up in recent time, which makes them less attractive. The heavy weight that the vans have to carry (including heavy boilers and hot water cylinders) has a major impact on the performance of the engine and accordingly of the engines efficiency. Plumbers and heating engineers have to carry a heavy load of tools and kits for the job, which add weight and reduce the petrol efficiency of the van (a Worcester Bosch boiler, for example can weigh in at close to 50Kg, while a sheet metal water heating cylinder can get up to 90Kg).

Colin demands that the government cuts the fuel duty while the price of oil is so high. He argues that the government should take a proactive step to help small business such as plumbing and heating engineers that have to drive as part of their job.

Colin attracted support from local residents that agree with his view and show their support by blowing their horn at his one-man-demonstration outside a Morrison petrol station in Coventry.

On the opposite side, experts argue that higher cost of petrol will discourage the use of motor cars thus reducing green house gasses and reducing congestion, both of which are positive outcomes. Furthermore higher prices will dampen demand for a resource that is limited and might run out at one point.

Colin Good has proven that he has strong support from the local community, but so far his demonstration has not managed to change the government’s policy.

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This page has been written with contributions from qualified plumbers from Kent and Gas Safe engineers from Battersea. Several of the company's plumbing and heating engineers from Middlesex have worked on similar issues as well as some of our experienced heating engineers from Acton and our Croydon plumbers.

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