HOMES FOR UKRAINIANS PLEA
A local businessman is appealing to owners of vacant properties across Lochaber and the wider Highlands to consider making them available for refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine.
Earlier this year, Steven Smith and his partner, Sandra Melnkaite, took over the lease for the running of the popular Dining Car cafe at Glenfinnan Station Museum, which they are now refurbishing. The couple, who also own property in the Oban area, are currently living at Glenfinnan Station Cottage with their two young sons. They already run the Kilted Camel boutique café and coffee shop in Fort William with Sandra’s sister.
Mr Smith told the Lochaber Times that he and Sandra were looking at ways to sponsor Ukrainian refugees to come to live and work in Lochaber and Lorn.
Mr Smith said: ‘I have a few friends from when I was in Ukraine in 2010. I was caught up in Russia bureaucracy trying to get a fire engine to Mongolia and people from the Donbass region really helped us out, putting us up for a month and got us into Russia. The same people now are either fighting or are refugees.’
Mr Smith told the Lochaber Times of his friend Julia, who together with her four-year-old child and her mother, spent 10 days in a bomb shelter in Kyiv as Russian troops shelled the country’s capital city.
Julia’s husband, father and brother are all fighting and she is currently living in a small flat with other Ukrainians in Piacenza in Italy after escaping the conflict and is wondering what to do next.
The Lochaber initiative comes in the week it was announced UK householders will be offered £350 a month to open their homes to people fleeing the war.
The Homes for Ukraine scheme will see people able to nominate a named individual or a family to stay
with them rent-free, or in another property, for at least six months.
Speaking of his friend Julia, Mr Smith, right, added: ‘She is looking to come to the UK or Ireland where she hopes to be able to work to support her son and mother. She was a marketing manager, but is willing to do anything. She has a lot of friends in similar situations.’
Mr Smith said after suggesting the idea of seeking empty local properties, over the course of the last few days he had received substantial interest from people keen to help: ‘There’s been a lot of interest. But I think this will have to be done on a case-by-case basis, matching people with specific accommodation and jobs.’
He also mentioned the probable requirement for a dedicated co-ordinator/co-ordinators of any such local scheme and added: ‘I feel that with it we can find accommodation, we will be able to find childcare and jobs and generally support these people without them becoming a burden, which they don’t want to be, until they can return to their lives.
‘We have offered our caravan. I also have several job offers and some landowners considering putting caravans on land.
‘It might be difficult to put whole families into people’s houses long term, but if accommodation can be found – larger houses with space, estate houses, holiday lets – at least some solutions might be possible.’
Lochaber councillor Allan Henderson, Caol and Mallaig Ward, said he felt there was a lot of merit in Mr Smith’s initiative, saying: ‘There is a lot of pressure on council housing and it would clearly be wrong to disrupt the housing list as many have waited years for a cherished home and the council has a duty of care to provide,’ explained Councillor Henderson.
‘However, there are certain hard-to-fill local authority houses in places where work opportunities do not present and, with the right support, I am sure they would be useful to put a roof over the heads of refugees.
‘As the council does not have a list of private accommodation, any initiative by volunteers would be welcome to ascertain available private accommodation, whether conventional housing or cabins.
‘Lochaber certainly has a lot of second homes which would neither impact on tourism, nor the housing register.’
Meanwhile, Scottish Land & Estates, which represents rural businesses, said more than 40 estates have volunteered to help those fleeing war and arriving in Scotland.
Any readers wishing to contact Mr Smith to discuss offering vacant accommodation can contact him via the Lochaber Times at editor@ lochabertimes.co.uk.