Gas shortage hits Applecross Inn in Wester Ross as venue is forced to reduced bookings and menu
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A WESTER Ross hospitality venue was forced to operate at reduced capacity yesterday after running out of gas.
The Applecross Inn announced on their social media yesterday that they were facing fuel shortages after issues with their supplier, Calor Gas.
A limited menu and bookings were in place for the day, with the Inn's takeaway set up, the Applecross Inn-Side-Out being in use.
Owner Julie Fish said the most difficult thing was the scarcity of heating and hot water to run the hotel, as well as all the cooking we are so dependent on Calor Gas for this.
"We have managed to keep up, we have some induction tops and some electric set up but we are not able to run at full capacity.
"They have promised delivery today between 10 and 2pm today so hopefully we will be on track by then.
"We had issues with drivers being off with Covid, which I completely understand, I am just worried about what the underlying issue with the gas is, as it seems to be happening with other companies."
The post said: "We are in a very remote location and don’t have access to recourses that most places do. We rely on fuel, including gas to be delivered to us and without such we would not be able to do what we do.
"When we received our last delivery from Calor Gas we were only given half a tank due to “shortages”. We were told to carry on using our gas as normal or this may cause a delay in future delivery’s.
"Despite several emails and phone calls to Calor gas to update on our levels being critically low, we have been told a delivery is scheduled but no date confirmed.
"Yesterday, the inevitable happened and we ran out of gas. Calor gas were informed of this – we were told this has been escalated and we would get a delivery ASAP. As of today, so we have just been told, there is STILL no delivery date pencilled in. No explanation or reason why we haven’t had a delivery and no advice or support.
"Very sorry for this situation but we can only do what we can do. We are working very hard to put together the best menu we can but no gas means very limited cooking capabilities (no fryers etc). "
A Calor spokesperson commented: "We sincerely apologise to everyone at the Applecross Inn for the late delivery of their LPG. A delivery has been scheduled for today (April 28).
"We and others across the LPG industry have experienced a shortage of specially trained (hazardous goods) HGV drivers and high levels of Covid-19 that continued to impact our operations throughout the winter months, including our call centre response times. This means that a backlog of orders has resulted in tank levels for some customers running lower than usual, or in a minority of cases, running out before we are able to reach them.
"While the vast majority of our customers have not been impacted, we know this is concerning for those that have experienced issues and that this level of service is not what they expect from us. We would like to reassure all our customers that we have now recruited a larger than usual driver workforce, allowing us restore our service level to where it should be."
The Inn managed to set up a temporary bottled gas supply for their for the Inn-Side-Out takeaway which ran as normal.
