A PENSIONER was in danger of being left without heat in the freezing cold after oil could not be delivered.

Pensioner Clare Stott, 87, of Top Lane, Wootton, near Woodstock, said: “I ordered oil from my regular supplier CPL before the snow but then they didn’t come.”

She was saved when neighbour Chris Pomfrett, an energy consultant, turned up with an emergency 25-litre barrel of heating oil on a truck.

Mr Pomfrett said: “Thousands of rural oil customers are just sitting waiting for deliveries. The oil suppliers were caught out completely by the snow.”

Mr Pomfrett, who runs G&W, a not-for-profit oil-buying group that offers consumers discounts on heating oil, said: “Why didn’t the suppliers get 4x4 trucks, and get just 100 litres to the most vulnerable customers?”

He added: “I have been driving in a truck delivering emergency oil supplies to desperate people let down by their suppliers: 95-year-old widows, couples with babies, multiple sclerosis sufferers.”

CPL marketing director Gareth Williams said: “We do indeed have four-wheel-drives and mini-tankers to reach vulnerable people or those living in places difficult to access.”

CPL’s regional manager, Linda Price, added: “The minute the temperature drops, then our phone lines get very busy.

“We’re having to prioritise those customers at risk of running out completely.”

Consumer Direct spokesman Tom Shepherd said: “Consumers who fail to receive oil or gas should look at their contracts carefully.”