How Could The BBC Get So Many Things Wrong?

We had heard that Alan Ball, managing director of PTS, had been interviewed about the Boiler Scrappage petition for a story on the BBC2, Working Lunch programme. We waited, with keen anticipation, for the first national coverage for the campaign until it was aired in yesterday's show.

What a disappointment! The whole story was given a bit of a negative slant, except for the interview with Alan Ball which was excellent.

After some talk about Comet offering a discount, they opened with "It's not just retailers, though, jumping at the scrappage idea, now plumbers want a cash for old boilers scheme AND they want the taxpayer to pay for it!"

WHAT? Where the hell did they dream all that up from?

First of all, I am the originator of that petition and I am not a plumber. I am the MD of a plumbers merchant and, as such, am very aware of how much more efficient modern condensing boilers are than the boilers we seek to replace. I know that the scheme could stop millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide being spewed into the atmosphere. I have knowledge of boilers, but I am NOT a plumber!

Next, I have never said that I want the taxpayer to pay for it and neither has anyone else to my knowledge. If they had taken the trouble to read my petition, they would have seen that I am calling on the government to work with boiler manufacturers to create such a scheme, not to pay for it.

The government has already committed large sums of taxpayer's money in order to reach their reduction targets - maybe using some here would be a good boost to those reductions. In other similar schemes, energy suppliers have partly funded them and in the car scheme, manufacturers partly funded it. However it may eventually be funded, I have NEVER suggested that the taxpayer should pay for it!

Talking, next, about new boilers, they came up with this little beauty "Costing around £3,000 a time, many people are choosing, instead, to repair their existing ones"

I wish I could sell boilers at £3,000 a time! Band A condensing boilers, the most efficient on the market, don't cost anywhere near £3,000. The whole job may cost around £2,000 depending on the boiler and a site survey (according to a few heating engineers I asked this afternoon), but to suggest that a new boiler costs around £3,000 was just wrong.

Next, they announced "Now the industry wants the government to give sales a boost, by introducing a scrappage scheme, giving householders a £500 grant.."

By this time, I am leaping up and down like a demented monkey!!!

I am NOT asking the government to give sales a boost, I'm asking them to work with boiler manufacturers to create a scrappage scheme and I have NEVER put a monetary value to it.

It's all in the petition or on the campaign website, had they taken the trouble to read about it. The main theme is environmental and energy saving and that is what made me think of it in the first place. This government has targets to reach and this scheme will help a lot.

Yes, it will have some effect to boost demand for boilers, but don't forget that the construction industry is one of the hardest hit in this recession. A good side effect, wouldn't you say?

Another important factor is that the householder will save money on their gas bills, which, although important now, may be even more important later if the price rises. Another good side effect, I'm sure you will agree.

This campaign has received support from all sectors, but particularly from people concerned for the environment, so for the BBC to suggest that the petition is all about boosting sales was disappointing, to say the least.

Thank goodness Alan Ball was featured - he said it exactly as it is!

After watching the show, I was chomping at the bit to flash an email off to them at the speed of light, but, after chatting to one or two people I decided to calm down a bit first. I did have a bit of an open rant on Twitter, a private rant, also on Twitter, several rants at work and my poor wife had me ranting down the phone at her...

By late afternoon, I was calm enough to put together a coherent email, which was duly sent at about 5.50 and returned undelivered at 6.25 pm.

I thought that I must have got the email address wrong, so I used the link on their website to try again at 6.50 and that was also returned undelivered at 7.15 pm.

I tried again from my home pc later that evening with the same result. ARGHHHH !!!

I did eventually get it to them this morning and duly got a reply an hour or so later. It said "We do read all your emails but unfortunately we get so many that we can't answer each one personally"

Ah well, they do say any publicity is good publicity, I suppose. It just would have been nice if they had got their facts right!