A FLYER put into White Gum Valley letterboxes by Canadian owned Gas giant Atco was misleading and deceptive, the Advertisement Standard Community Panel has found. 

The flyer was hand-delivered mid-November as Atco alerted residents to upcoming works on their gas mains, and the company says it was included by error.

Apart from advising people on how to get connected to gas, the flyer claimed it would save people money on hot water, cooking and heating, while it was also “better for the environment”.

“Produce 70 per cent less greenhouse gas,” it claimed, pointing to an Energy Networks Australia report to back the claim.

But the ASCP found that Atco hadn’t included an important point; they were only comparing it to power from the grid and not other sources such as renewables.

Atco says that was an 

“oversight” and it has already removed the flyers from circulation.

White Gum Valley resident Loius de Villiers, who spotted the ASCP determination, says he wanted to raise the issue in the hope “our council and ratepayers may use this outcome to support opposition to regressive, unnecessary and wasteful expenditure”.

by DANIELA GARBIN