Count Kaz Baliński and his wife, British supermodel Sophie Anderton, have said they were not notified about plans to house hundreds of Ukrainian refugees on lands owned by the Count’s mother in County Wicklow.
Count Baliński, his wife, and his elderly mother are the primary residents of the Glendalough Estate which lies on 1,500 acres of land where plans are in place to house some 950 Ukrainians in a town whose population is in the region of 200 people.
Speaking to the Irish Independent Count Baliński said “We learned the news, not from official Government correspondence like those of the surrounding community, but from the community’s concerned members, who understandably assumed that the Ukrainian Temporary Accommodation (UTA) was of our design,”
The count has warned that until such time as a satisfactory conclusion is reached anyone coming onto the land will be seen as an act of “trespass”.
Last week Gript reported that the 950 Ukrainian refugees are to be given ‘own door’ ensuite cabin accommodation and will start to move in next month according to the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth.
“It is intended that each site will accommodate up to 950 people, with the contract in place for a period of 32 weeks,” a spokesperson for the Department said.
Independent councillor John Snell said: “Once again public representatives are kept in the dark until the ink is dry on a contract. The Glendalough estate at Annamoe will be home to potentially 950 people (families) from Ukraine starting in a matter of weeks, so many questions and not a sinner to be found to give any answers.”
“Talk about disgraceful communication to the community, residents, councillors, schools, doctors, shops the list goes on.” he said adding that, ““Annamoe’s population will be quadrupled overnight,”
Speaking to the Independent, Senator Pat Casey said the move “was a complete and utter shock to everyone. It’s the scale of what is happening in Annamoe that is frightening everybody. Surely the Government have an obligation to consult with the residents living on the estate,” said Senator Casey, who is from the local area.
“Annamoe has no infrastructure. There is not even a shop in it. There is nothing in it. It is a very rural location, to one extent, it is on the side of a hill. It is completely inappropriate for this,” he said.
Locals in the area have set up a petition outlining their frustrations including claims that they are often refused planning permission writing that “Yet now, without any discussion or consideration for our community’s capacity or infrastructure, this massive influx has been decided upon,”
Count Baliński wrote to the Department of Integration, Wicklow County Council’s Planning Department and the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB), saying that a “change of refugee demographic could easily lead to very serious security risks.”
Noting that members of his own family are World War Two refugees he asked the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth to provide a “responsible representative” with whom residents at Glendalough House can “discuss realistic potentials for the UTA”.
“Until such time that this matter is resolved, access to Glendalough House, our home, is denied and will be treated as trespass,” he said.