Tyneside Consumers’ Group Spring 1999 - No 119

In this issue of Tyne Buy

House of Lords Reception
The Older Person
An Englishman's Home..?
Too Young or Too Old
Financial Matters
Banking Queries - Response
Financial Telephone Selling
Recurring Payments
Fairer Fares
Instant Access
Food News
NfCG/MAFF Food Seminar
Home Grocery Deliveries
Food for Thought
Organic Food Awards
Fresh Eggs
Letters
More New Ideas
Ring Pull Cans
Visit to Sainsbury's
Leaded Petrol
After the Car Wash

House of Lords Reception

I had the pleasure of being invited, as Chairman of Tyneside Consumers’ Group, to the National Federation of Consumer Group’s Consumer Leaders’ Reception on Thursday 4th March in the Cholmondeley Room at the House of Lords. The reception was sponsored by NfCG’s President, Baroness Wilcox, and helped by Zurich Financial Services (UKISA) Ltd. There were about 110 people there. I very much enjoyed it all. It was fun to be on the inside looking out at the tourists, on their river trips looking in, and it’s always a pleasure to meet other members of our consumer movement. United we advance our views.

Richard Townshend

The Older Person

"An Englishman's Home is His Castle"....

but for many a care home may be our last home. Choosing which one for ourselves or a loved relative or friend is frequently a decision which has to be made under stress and in a hurry. Do we have the information needed to make the best choice in these circumstances? And how can we influence the way care homes operate? These are important concerns, not least because the number of people aged 85 or over is expected to double by the middle of the next century.

As over 70% of care home residents are funded in some way by the public sector - through income support, local authorities etc. - we all have at least an indirect interest in this £8.5 billion industry.

The minds of a number of organisations are currently directed this way:

• The Better Regulation Task Force reviewed long term care in 1998, concluding more vigorous regulation is needed.
• The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) issued a report "Older People as Consumers in Care Homes" last autumn.
• A Royal Commission has reported this year on the funding of long term care for the elderly.
• The Department of Health is looking at national standards.
• A Government White Paper, due later this year, is expected to propose reforms to the regulatory framework for care homes.

The OFT has made an excellent start. Their investigation looked at information provided by care homes, including that about fees and what is or is not included. They also looked at contracts, if they exist and what they say, and at arrangements for the protection of residents’ money. Finally, they considered redress - whether residents, their friends or relatives, know the procedure and whether it is effective.

Importantly, the OFT surveyed nearly a thousand care home residents themselves as part of the investigation and in their report they also record their appreciation of many responses from relatives and friends telling of their experiences.

Over half of care home residents are now privately run homes, most of which are small businesses of one or two care homes, needing to be run profitably.

Both residential and nursing homes must be registered (except local authority residential homes) and must be inspected at least twice a year, except for residential homes with fewer than four people. These inspection reports must be available from local authorities (often at libraries) and can be a good source of information for prospective residents, their families and friends. Anyone who feels that they require residential care has the right to have their care needs assessed. The OFT found these assessments are often lacking in the detail needed to identify the most suitable home.

Sources of general information exist, such as the freephone advice line of the National Care Homes Association, but information about specific homes is more difficult to find, especially in a hurry. According to the OFT survey, only one quarter of residents had any written information before moving in. The OFT recommends that homes review the written and oral information they give. For example, very few brochures detail extra charges made for chiropody, hairdressing, laundry, outings and so forth. Brochures should also detail notice periods and complaints procedures and the OFT encourages the production of large print, braille and audiotape versions. They noted that homes do usually welcome visits by prospective residents, their relatives and friends, and maybe a trial stay -much more illuminating than any brochure.

However, the OFT found a disturbing lack of written contracts and a lack of knowledge of terms and conditions of residence. They recommended a clear and comprehensive contract, tripartite where the resident is not the direct purchaser, with copies to the resident and any relative or friend who is a signatory. Inspectors should check copies are provided for residents before the resident moves in, i.e. the decision has been made.

On finance, the OFT recommends that inspectors should be given training and the power to monitor the handling of residents’ finances. It is concerned that pooling of personal allowances should be actively discouraged and that the resident (or a relative or a friend) should look after their own financial affairs whenever possible. If the home owner does take financial responsibility, the resident should receive a detailed and regular statement. Each resident’s money should be held in a separate account. Inspectors should check all this being properly carried out.

Both residents and their relatives and friends told the OFT of their reluctance to complain, for a number of obvious reasons. This is extremely difficult to address but the OFT has made a number of detailed recommendations aimed at opening up and regulating the whole process. They recommend that a large print copy of the complaints procedure should be displayed prominently in each home, where staff, residents and their visitors can easily see it. In addition each resident should be given a copy.

It is good to know that three quarters of the residents surveyed were very satisfied with the services and facilities of their care home. They liked their kind and helpful staff, the companionship and their care in a friendly, pleasant atmosphere. But the most common concerns were not enough experienced and junior staff to look after residents or take them out, plus deteriorating standards or maintenance and insufficient food.

Better regulation of care homes is probably necessary. We hope that built into it will be a recognition of the rights of residents as consumers, who up until their move into care have been able to exert those rights for themselves.

Do you have experience of choosing a residential or nursing home? Please let us know how you found the information you needed and anything else which would have been helpful.

Dorothy Craig

Too Young or Too Old?

In the October 1998 issue of Which? a short piece appeared about Hire Car firms discriminating against older drivers. It concerned a 75 year old driver who had experienced problems renting a car abroad. Which? investigated the age-limit policies of five major car rental firms, and came to the conclusion that discrimination purely for reasons of age doesn’t make sense. There are measures to help ensure that older drivers are fit to drive. For instance when drivers become 70 in the UK, they must apply to renew their licence and answer medical questions at least every three years. Age Concern believes that drivers should be judged on their competence and safety record - not on their age.

We wondered, after reading this, what the position was here on Tyneside regarding limits to hiring a car, so we skimmed through the Yellow Pages and randomly chose 12 local car hire firms to ring for their terms regarding older drivers. We felt it a good idea to investigate any MINIMUM age requirements as well. Here is the result of our enquiries:

 Obviously a condition for renting a car is to hold an up to date ‘clean’ licence. Some firms require younger customers to have held a ‘clean’ licence for 2-3 years - although a few firms will, it seems, accept a licence with up to 6 points on it. As regards health conditions - in the upper age bracket these will have been (or should have been) advised to the Swansea licensing authority. Usual identification i.e. passport, etc. will also be required.

So, do some of these figures surprise you? Obviously for older drivers wishing to hire a car, and having no objections to the VW range, then Benfield Car Hire is a ‘Good Buy’.

Financial Matters

Financial Telephone Selling

Three out of four UK consumers want to see new laws banning or restricting telephone sales calls for financial services. Many people wanted a complete ban on unsolicited telephone sales calls from banks and other financial companies. Others wanted such calls banned unless they had agreed in advance to receive them. Women were more likely to support a total ban.

Beware of "Continuous or Recurring Payments"

The Bank Ombudsman, David Thomas, has drawn attention to the risks involved from the authorisation of ‘continuous payments’ from bank accounts (known also as ‘recurring transactions’). Many organisations arrange instructions for recurring transactions for subscriptions; for instance it is estimated that nearly one in ten members of the RAC pay their subscriptions this way, and to the Consumers Association magazine Which?

Once a ‘recurring transaction’ has been signed the persons signing have very little control over their money. Unlike Direct Debits and Standing Orders only the organisation taking the money from an account can automatically cancel the arrangement - it can also change the amount it takes without telling you, so cancelling a recurring transaction can pose a problem.

Apparently it is very difficult to close a credit account while a continuous payment order is drawn on it, the amount will continue to appear on the monthly statement from the credit card company. It is recommended that the safest action to take is to instruct the organising company by letter to cancel the arrangement and on the same day send a copy of that letter of instruction to your card company.

Potentially worse is that untrustworthy organisations can mean cardholders are vulnerable to both fraud and inefficiency, especially when dealing with an overseas firm where legal action may not be possible. As only the organisation can cancel a continuous payment authority, it is advised to think carefully before signing a mandate, and in any case only to do so where the account holder is in control in being able to change the arrangement, and amounts cannot be taken by a third party.

Given possible problems why is this type of authorisation chosen at all? The card companies emphasise the following:

• In the case of an error, only credit has been taken, not cash.
• The interest-free period on clear balances can be used to defer the bill for a month.
• One may get the benefit of points and other promotions which some credit cards offer.
• Some cards charge lower interest rates than bank overdrafts.

However, all is not gloom and doom because the credit card industry is going to set up a working party to bring rules for continuous payments/recurring transactions into line with those covering Direct Debit arrangements. The above information was published in The Daily Telegraph - January 1999.

Fairer Fares

Foreign package holidays and travel insurance will offer better value thanks to new rules governing the travel trade.

It is now illegal for travel agents, tour operators in vertically integrated groups, to charge customers more for holidays if they choose not to buy insurance. The new rules also make it illegal for a tour operator to restrict a travel agent’s freedom to sell holidays - whether they are supplied by that tour operator or any other - at prices of the agent’s own choosing.

Tying discounts to the purchase of travel insurance had enabled travel agents to inflate advertised savings, due to the sometimes large margins made on insurance. This misled customers into thinking they were receiving a greater discount than they really were.

An agreement between tour operators and travel agents had required agents to promote the holidays of the operator on terms at least as favourable, if not better, than those on which it promoted rival operators’ holidays. That practice effectively restricted the travel agent’s ability to offer bigger discounts on another tour operators’ holidays. There was also the problem that not many customers were, or are, aware of the links between a tour operator and a travel agency. The companies concerned are Thompson Travel Group, Airtours plc., Thomas Cook Group and Carlson Leisure Group (UK).

From ‘Fair Trading

Instant Access?

A member writes: Are your Instant Access accounts instant?

Northern Rock were very good, a cheque received the day after they had my instruction. The cheque made out to whoever I wanted. I only cancelled the account because the interest dropped to a very low amount.

I joined Saga. Their Instant Access took three days and they would only make the cheque payable to me, the account holder. This caused even more delay if one wanted the money to pay a bill and then had to write out one‘s own cheque, allowing time for the Saga cheque at Bristol and West Building Society to be cleared

I cancelled Saga and joined Egg (Prudential). Egg will pay direct to one‘s bank account and like Northern Rock, on a cheque to whoever one names. Their interest is higher too. Much more satisfactory.

Food News

NfCG/MAFF Food Seminar

Three members of the committee, Avril Townshend, Dorothy Craig and Judith Robinson, attended the NfCG/MAFF Food Seminar in London concerning the proposed Food Standards Agency. Speakers from MAFF listened carefully to all points raised and answered questions in detail - but, will the Government actually take note of all consumer comments? We hope they will, but, we were firmly told, the Government will NOT discuss the proposed £90 levy on food outlets. (There will be some exceptions such as those only selling packaged sweets or WI stalls).

We await the final legislation with interest.

So What's New?
(A postscript to "Home grocery deliveries")

It is often said "what goes around, comes around" - meaning that there is hardly any ‘thing’ or any idea which is brand new, but has simply become ‘rediscovered’. This could be said about the current and increasing willingness for supermarkets to deliver, sometimes free of charge, goods direct to the doorstep.

You may remember that we reported on Home Delivery trends in Tyne Buy - No 117, Summer 1998 -when only 3 retailers out of the 8 whom we wrote to bothered to reply to our enquiries. Back in 1986 (Tyne Buy No 81 - June 1986) we carried out a local ‘mini’ survey to find out which, if any, supermarket chains in the area provided a home delivery service to customers. That was at a time when many shoppers were recalling, nostalgically, the days when such a service was taken for granted. We found there were a few stores operating this facility, notably Walter Wilson, William Low and Tesco (through a scheme operating in Gateshead for housebound elderly handicapped people).

Back in 1980 the first phase of a socially targeted new shopping experiment/study was started in Gateshead. It was called the ‘Shopping and Information Service’ - or S.I.S. for short. It’s aim and purpose was to improve the shopping opportunities for people largely confined to their homes for health or other reasons. It also enabled information on a wide range of social and community matters to be widely circulated. This service was a joint venture between Tesco, Newcastle University and the Gateshead Dept. of Social Services, and used the modern technology of the time - (microcomputers and Viewdata). During 1980-1982 great progress was made in creating and perfecting procedures for ordering, collecting goods and delivery services. In 1982 thanks to a grant from the Inner City Partnership Scheme of the Department of Environment wider expansion became possible. At this point Gateshead Council took on greater responsibility for managing the service.

In essence the procedure was as follows. Shopping orders were relayed to stores taking part in the scheme from individual homes or neighbourhood centres using microcomputers or television sets equipped with Viewdata adaptors. The selected goods were divided into individual baskets for delivery. Frozen and other perishables were packed separately and transported in cooling boxes. Delivery took place in the afternoon when ordering in the morning, or early next morning for goods ordered the previous afternoon. Payment was made at the time of ordering, except for customers ordering through the telephone centre and the Rediffusion Viewdata system. These customers paid at the time of delivery. Incidentally, there was no extra charge for the delivery service.

As a social experiment S.I.S. proved an unquestioned success. Its value was summed up simply and effectively by two satisfied customers :"ft’s given me back my freedom and a sense of personal responsibility... I just wish there were more services like it for other people ".

So, what’s new?

On January 10th this year an interesting article appeared in the Family Finance columns of the Sunday Telegraph written by Jenny Knight in which she examined the phone, fax and internet ordering and delivery services being offered by the big retailers. She mentioned the Somerfield chain which plans to enter the Internet home shopping market as being the latest in a series of moves by food retailers aimed at helping people who are too busy (or handicapped) to go shopping. A warehouse shopping scheme is to be piloted in the Bristol area. Customers will be able to phone or fax home delivery orders to a centralised distribution scheme. The ultimate plan is to set up a nationwide distribution system.

Retail consultants have predicted that, within 10 years, 2 million British shoppers will be faxing, phoning or e-mailing their orders to supermarkets and shopping services. "It is no wonder", she says, "that most of the big supermarket groups are funding home-delivery trials ". Waitrose, whilst staying out of the home-shopping market, has targeted shoppers with its waitrose@work internet service for companies, such as Microsoft and British Airways. Employees send in computerised orders, and these are delivered to the office. Sainsbury’s launched its Orderline remote shopping service in 27 stores last September, targeting up to 4 million customers and Asda intends to launch a grocery catalogue home delivery service from a depot in Bromley, Kent. Iceland incidentally was the first supermarket chain to offer home delivery (for orders over £25, free or £1 charge depending on the store).

Jenny Knight suggests that sceptics may think that supermarkets will drop home shopping services when it is discovered just how expensive it is to employ drivers, delivery staff and ‘pickers’ to assemble the dozens of small items that make up the typical weekly shopping list. But, she says, fans are convinced that the pace of modern life guarantees its continuing existence.

Well, what do you think? Is she right? In any case, judging by past experience, we predict that should ‘service to the customer at home’ prove to be not economically viable and face a cut back or become abandoned, surely it will only be another decade before a similar scheme emerges, and is applauded as the ‘latest thing since sliced bread’.

Mary Storer

Another Home Food Delivery Service Discovered

The following information was received from the Manager of Fenwick’s Food Hall just too late to be included in Tyne Buy (No 117) but we print it here for our readers’ interest.

Fenwicks of Newcastle have long had a delivery service for their food customers - especially appreciated we imagine in outlying areas of Northumberland as far north as Bamburgh and south to Durham. Orders made up in the Food Hall are sent to Killingworth for onward despatch to customers. On orders over the value of £50 there is no delivery charge. This service is confined to non-perishable and dry goods because Fenwick’s delivery vans are not chilled (such as those for the Iceland store). Nevertheless, the fact that this facility does exist may come as a welcome surprise to some of our readers.

Food for Thought

Household consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables continues to rise and more people are drinking skimmed milk, low calorie soft drinks, mineral water and alcoholic drinks.

It is also found that the better the oral health of people over 65, including how many natural teeth they have, the better their diets and nutritional status.

Food Safety Information Bulletin

Organic Food Awards

The market for organic food is growing by 40% a year according to the Soil Association. But currently about 70% of the organic food we buy has to be imported, so it is excellent news that most of the winners of the Organic Food Awards recently are U.K. based.

We cannot bring you the complete list but here are some (both winners and highly commended) which are available in Tyneside and the North East:

Out of This World was one of the highly commended retailers (branch in Gosforth High Street).

Sainsbury’s was highly commended in the supermarket category.

The 1998 Organic Trophy went to the Village Bakery, Melmerby, Cumbria. As well as a shop they have a cafe, open all day including Sundays (not evening) at their premises in Melmerby, on the A686 between Penrith and Alston. It makes an excellent stopping point for refreshments en route to or from the Lake District or other points west. Also in the village is the Shepherd’s Inn, with a good reputation for its bar meals, though not organic.

Fresh Eggs

A member gave her son Delia Smith’s cookbook for a present and he enthusiastically started at the beginning, then found he could not do the recipe because it stated ‘four day old eggs’ were required.

Do any members know where one can buy such fresh eggs? The days of keeping one’s own hens are long gone!

Letters

Dear Agnes, (Plymouth Consumer Group)

In reply to your letter.

We too had a visit from Filter Queen! We also won a holiday so the young lady informed us by telephone. "What was the catch?" I asked Curiosity overcame us and we said yes, someone could call and show us Filter Queen. "What on earth was Filter Queen? ". The unintelligible reply left us none the wiser.

A charming young man came with his super dalek. It did look like a dalek He showed us, like your salesman, all the machine could do. The cost was the same - £1699, but we were offered a £200 discount We signed for one immediately. The machine was, as you said ‘a super-duper air purifier and vacuum cleaner’. We would not buy one either. The salesman did not seem to mind, calls were his objective and if a potential customer did not buy they might just tell a friend who would be more interested No high pressure for us either.

Our holiday was a voucher for bed only at a hotel of our choice (UK or abroad), we chose UK. The selection of hotels was very good and some were well known. The catch - one had to pay for all meals and breakfast and dinner had to be taken in the hotel. One had to make one ‘s own travel arrangements. All this could turn out to be quite expensive. A different offer to yours which was a holiday for six.

We kept the voucher and smiled to ourselves. Our Hoover vacuum still works perfectly for us - even my husband knows how to use it. We still breathe our impure air.

You are in Plymouth, we are in Newcastle. I wonder if anyone in-between did buy a Filter Queen and enjoy a 'free' holiday.

Yours sincerely

Judith Robinson

A Courtesy Call

A special thank you to Kwik Fit for After Sales Service.

Our car needed two new front tyres. Kwik Fit in Kenton Road, Gosforth, changed the tyres and realigned the tracking, all done quickly and efficiently.

We received a telephone call the following day, from Kwik Fit, saying it was a courtesy call to check that we were completely satisfied with the work done.

How very pleasant and in extreme contrast to the dismissive treatment we had received from Town and Country Driveways of Manchester (see Tyne Buy No 118 ‘A Patterned Concrete Driveway’). Town and Country Driveway’s policy is to completely ignore customers, or so it seemed to us. They certainly need some lessons in public relations and courtesy.

We should introduce them to Kwik Fit of Gosforth.

Judith Robinson

Responses to "Banking Queries" 
(in last issue of TYNE BUY).

Dear Editor,

1. So far, no banks have actually closed in the area in which we live (Ponteland).
2. I prefer to get money from a cashier within the bank (I do not see any sense standing in the queue outside where the weather may be cold, wet and windy).
3. I have only used telephone banking for enquiries about statement entries and have found this system customer friendly.
4. I would not like to use telephone banking entirely - I prefer to see actual figures (e.g transactions/balance) in print rather than be told over the telephone by a disembodied voice reading from a computer screen I cannot see!!
5. No, I do not use the Post Office Giro bank.

Dear Editor,

1. Banks may have closed in my area but this does not affect me personally.
2. I do not use the "hole in the wall" nor do I get money from a bank
3. I have used telephone banking since 1992. I find First Direct entirely satisfactory - and there are no bank charges.
4. See above.
5. I do not use the Post Office Giro bank Perhaps I should add that I obtain cash with a debit card at supermarkets.

Yours sincerely

J H Bescoby

More New Ideas

Solar Studs

A new idea, solar-powered illuminating road studs, which promises to be a success and an improvement is to be put on trial soon on a major road in Worcestershire shortly. The studs are maintenance free and are more visible in poor weather than the usual white lines with the conventional standard road studs, it is claimed by the Highways Agency.

The studs absorb daylight and light from headlamps and also turn themselves off at dawn.

Voice Control

Although we shouldn’t do it it is not unusual for a driver ‘on the move’ to remove a hand from the wheel and glance away from the road ahead in order to change channels or volume on a car radio. A safer way to do this is being developed with the help of the BBC. The car of the future will have voice controlled functions instead of by hand as at present. The AA supports the idea because it should make it easier for drivers to keep their eyes on the road. The BBC expects the first models to be on sale in about two years, - but no price is yet known.

Collectible Item

A new style AA Members’ Handbook is on its way (at last) and will be circulated with the AA’s Members’ Magazine (1999 Issue No 2). The first edition was published in 1908 three years after the creation of the AA organisation. It was leather-covered and simply listed hotels and garages on main roads. In 1912 hotels became classified using the now-famous stars system which was based on the star rating of cognac.

The Handbook was suspended during World War Two, but reappeared in 1947 - looking much the same as in the 1930’s! In fact it wasn’t until 1960 that an illustrated cover was introduced.

It may interest readers to know that old editions of the Handbook have been collectable for some time according to the AA archivist Michael Passmore. Any pre-1930’s edition is worth keeping but the rarest is from 1908. Even the AA has only one copy of that...

The above information appeared in the AA Magazine Issue No 1, 1999

Ring Pull Cans 1999

I also find ring pull cans difficult to open. Apart from breaking a nail in the small ring, the top often only opens half way and I cannot pull it any more.

End result:- Frustration, spilt contents and a sore finger. A pity, because the ring pull seemed a good idea.

P.S. Sainsbury now sell a "ring pull can opener"!

Ring Pull Cans 1962

The Iron City Brewery Company of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, changed the face of casual drinking in 1962. A can was developed with a pre-scored keyhole in the top which was peeled back by pulling an attached ring.

The public lapped it up and in 1964 beer sales shot up by 1.5 billion cans. Ring-pull crime broke out in the 1960’s when it was realised the rings could be jammed in parking meters and hence one could park for nothing.

Visit to Sainsbury's at Whitley Bay

We continued our regular programme of visits by going to Sainsbury’s Whitley Bay superstore, which is in Monkseaton Drive and within about five minutes walk of West Monkseaton Metro Station, on Wednesday 10th March at 7.00 pm, a time when the store was still busy without being overcrowded. Andy Watson, Deputy Manager, Fresh Foods, kindly showed us round the parts the shoppers see and the supporting service areas and answered our many questions. Our tour started with the fresh foods area, with its island shelves of vegetables, fruit and flowers at room temperature, surrounded by cooler cabinets closely temperature-regulated to suit their particular contents. Andy said every cool and freezer cabinet was linked by a local radio network to a computer in the store, which monitored the temperature and warned the staff if the power supply had failed or the temperature had risen too high. Appropriate action could then be taken by the staff with minimum delay and spoiling of produce.

Andy said Sainsbury’s had no less than 15 different designs of shopping trolley to cover a wide range of special requirements, which involved having large stocks in case of a run on any one model. The shop floor area was nearly 40,000 square feet but they would like wider aisles for greater comfort as they had in their other stores and there were plans to expand soon onto the nearest line of parking bays on the east side of the store.

The store kept down the required size of supporting service area, using the computers we were shown to maintain a just-in-time delivery schedule to send to the Sainsbury’s depots in Edinburgh and Rotherham. Flowers were delivered by lorry 24 hours a day. Sainsbury’s tried to run their other delivery lorries at night because there was less traffic, which reduced delivery time and driving time and also the wear and tear, noise and pollution caused by constant stopping and starting. The unsocial working hours led to increased labour costs through higher rates of pay. We saw the three loading bays, which were at ground level with scissors lift platforms to lorry height. Packaging was kept down to a minimum and the store had a bailer to compress waste cardboard and plastic. Surplus food was given away to charities and local pig farmers, particularly at Christmas, to reduce landfill requirements.

Even so, there was quite an array of industrial shelving loaded with short-stay stock. Slower moving goods were in a large section containing long lengths of wheeled shelving on tracks. Large handwheels on the ends of the shelving were used to wind them to the left or right to open up access corridors between selected pairs of shelving. The store had large rooms for chilled foods and cut flowers kept, like a fridge, close to 5°C and a large cold room for frozen foods kept close to minus 23°C. Air warmed by heat extracted from these rooms, by heat exchangers, was fed through heavily lagged ducts to warm and ventilate the rest of the store.

We were allowed briefly into the chill and freezer rooms but of course none of us had wanted to stay very long. However, Andy said the aisle of the cold room had been used by members of an expedition to try out their gear by sleeping overnight in their tents in the minus 23°C temperature there! We saw the bakery from an adjacent door but were not allowed in, for hygiene and practical reasons, as we were on a short visit only. We were told that, for instance, parties of local school children were dressed up properly in white hats, coats and so on and shown round in detail.

Our visit ended with coffee and a question and answer session in the restaurant. One subject was genetically modified food, which Sainsbury’s is in the process of exhaustively labelling and is progressively reducing to zero in its own-brand products as fast as possible. We went on to nng-pull cans which don’t, and are discussed in a separate article in this Tyne Buy. A very well earned vote of thanks to Andy Watson for a most interesting and enjoyable visit closed the proceedings.

Richard Townshend

Leaded Petrol

As part of a European strategy to reduce pollution from road traffic and improve the air we breathe, leaded petrol will be banned from general sale from 1 January 2000. If your car or lawnmower cannot run on unleaded petrol, there will be a possibility of switching to a Lead Replacement Petrol where this is available: or using unleaded petrol of the correct octane rating and adding a measured amount of Anti-Wear Additive. Alternatively, the engine can be modified, at some cost, to run on unleaded fuel.

Further information and advice will be included in a future issue of Tyne Buy.

Roy Storer

After the Car Wash

When did you last bath the labrador? An average British owner will only manage it once a year according to New Zealanders Greg Booth and Joanna Hibberd, who run the Mobile Dog Wash from an Oxfordshire farm - and they should know. They have bathed over 8000 dogs in the last two years.

Greg and Joanna borrowed the idea from Australia and set up the business with help from the Princes Trust. They use a converted post office van to transport their kit and travel around southern countries washing any breed of dog. By the end of 1999 it is hoped to extend the business across the country.

For more details, call 01844 290688.

Thanks to the Scottish Field

Tyne Buy

Material published in Tyne Buy may be freely reproduced, in whole or in part, provided acknowledgement is given and notification is sent to the Chairman. It may not be used for any form of advertising, sales promotion or publicity.

Our reports are made without bias or prejudice and are as accurate as we can reasonably make them, but no liability, whether legal or otherwise, is accepted for errors. Tyne Buy is published three times a year and sent direct to members. The subscription to Tyneside Consumers’ Group is currently £7 for one year. New members are always welcome. Please contact the Treasurer for further details.