Today sees the start of a grand tour of the UK. This grand tour though is not taken from an 18th Century novel or diary of that time, but instead is a real live modern grand tour instigated by Prince Charles. The main thrust of his journey around the UK is to promote the START initiative.
The means of transport for this road show will be the Royal Train and in keeping with the thrust of the initiative the train will be powered by vegetable oil based diesel. The world market in biodiesel is increasing year on year and the Brazilian producers have recently auctioned over 23million litres in the National Petroleum Agency (ANP) biodiesel auction, held in August this year. The ANP said that, in total around 430,000 tonnes of biodiesel had been sold by August 31st, 2010 in the first part of an auction that will be completed this week. This first lot was specifically reserved those producers in the Combustivel Social Program, this means that they would have had to buy their oil seeds from small family farms only.
The presence of the Prince on this promotional tour has already sparked controversy with regard to the cost of running the train. Many have remarked that the journey in itself is not green and therefore detracts from the initiative itself.
We contacted the owner of United Vans of Bristol for a comment on this initiative and the use of biodiesel. He commented “It is great when an initiative like this comes to the public’s attention, quite often it seems that we need someone like Prince Charles to attract enough publicity to make the initiative work. The whole biodiesel situation is not one that I would like to comment on. Suffice it to say that it has its proponents as well as its opponents.”
The Prince’s journey is expected to last for 5 days and will cost the taxpayer around £80,000. Whether you support this initiative or not it seems that it will create much furore over the next 5 days.
About United Vans of Bristol:
Bristol’s United Vans is a licensed vehicle dismantlers and recycling yard. Whenever you feel the need to declare ‘sell my van‘ they should be your first port of call for fair advice on the value of your van. Many satisfied clients have approached them to find the Vauxhall Brava value and how much their old transit t350 is worth. They have a reputation for recycling a high percentage of the materials recovered from their dismantling facility.
Tags: Biodiesel, Royal Train, united vans


