The Westwoods project is fortunate to be able to draw upon examples of best practice established by other similar schemes. The experience of these similar ventures across the UK suggests that wood fuel producer groups are:

• Very beneficial to small producers and users


• An excellent way to underpin and strengthen the biomass sector


• Powerful agents to lever-in additional support

Business development opportunities
By becoming a member of Westwoods your organisation will gain the following benefits:

• Access to woodfuel supply tenders coming on stream from local authorities and other end users. In the next 18 months, we are expecting to tender 20 woodfuel supply contracts for schools and elderly peoples’ homes in Bristol, Bath and North East Somerset, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset. In total, around 8,000 tonnes of locally-sourced woodfuel will be required.



• Hand-holding assistance in contract preparation.



• Access to quality control procedures e.g. testing wood chip for moisture content and particle size etc.



• Information and guidance on starting up a woodfuel supply business through open days and training.



• Organisation and assistance with the availability of suitable equipment for processing and delivering woodfuel to members of Westwoods.

Support, encouragement, simplicity
The woodfuel supply industry is young, and in order to encourage new entrants we are making sure that our woodfuel supply tenders and contracts:

• Are written in plain English



• Provide a level playing field so that all our members know exactly what they are quoting for



• Fair to suppliers through creating an equal share of risk and responsibility



• Have contract periods of an appropriate length, with options for extensions and price negotiation



• Don’t overburden a supplier with expensive record keeping and monitoring



• Set up appropriate level of QA necessary for the contract



• Ensure suppliers have the information needed to price the work for the QA aspect for each specific tender