Approval for council's £800k plan to ensure fuel supply in Scarborough Harbour

After a previous supplier stopped supplying fuel in Scarborough Harbour last year, North Yorkshire Council will step in and ensure the provision of liquid fuel for harbour users.

At a meeting on Friday, June 20, the authority approved entering into a “call-off contract for a period of two years” with Your NRG, including an option to extend for a further two years.

The authority had already purchased a replacement tank for Scarborough’s West Pier which cost £53,300 and will allow users to “self-operate and directly fuel their vessels while in the water below the tank”.

Speaking after the meeting, North Yorkshire Council’s corporate director of environment, Karl Battersby, said: “It is vital that we enter a contract with a new fuel supplier for Scarborough harbour to ensure a reliable supply is available as soon as possible. It is in place for two years, with an option to extend for a further two.

“In the new arrangement, we will provide and own the tank, and no rent will be paid. We will buy the fuel from the supplier who will fill our tank, and we will sell directly to the harbour users.”

He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): “As part of the process, we consulted with Scarborough harbour users and fuel suppliers.

“The price we charge consumers will be competitive with other suppliers so users are not being overcharged and will benefit from the convenience of having a tank within the harbour, rather than being reliant upon deliveries.

“Charges will be kept under review to ensure costs are being recovered and may be adjusted to reflect market circumstances or if consumer habits change.”

It is estimated that the authority will spend £205,000 a year on purchasing the fuel and over a four-year contract would equate to £820,000.

The commodity costs will be variable and variations in cost “will be absorbed by the consumer; if the fuel supply cost increases the pence per litre price will increase to the consumer”.

A council report concluded that “this margin that the council charges to the consumers will be kept under review to ensure costs are being recovered and may be adjusted to reflect market circumstances or if consumer habits change”.