Banbury Ukraine group stores aid in cars after power cut off

Magdalena Kwiecinska said her group's aid shipments had been put on hold

Volunteers collecting for Ukraine have said they are storing aid in homes and vehicles after a "ridiculous" electricity bill left them unable to use their headquarters.

Npower billed UK Help for Ukraine in Banbury, Oxfordshire, for £174,932.46 in September.

The power was cut off in August at the Castle Quay Shopping Centre base.

The volunteers, who said Npower had now opened discussions, are urgently seeking new premises.

The group was sent a "ridiculously enormous" invoice by Npower

In a Facebook post on Sunday, the group said: "UK Help For Ukraine is looking for new place through no fault of our own... We are not stopping sending our help to Ukraine."

Volunteer Jayne Wheat said the group was unable to sort through its stores of hospital beds, wheelchairs, bedding, clothes and other items because of the power dispute.

She said: "It's a ridiculously enormous bill. That would power the whole shopping centre.

"My bedroom is stacked to the hilt [with aid]. I am driving around with stuff in my car permanently."

Magdalena Kwiecinska, who set up the group last year, said she had had to move donated goods from her living room into a van.

She said Npower had previously failed to respond to the group.

Ms Kwiecinska said volunteers had been using head torches to sort donations until the group's landlord, Cherwell District Council, stopped the work on health and safety grounds.

UK Help for Ukraine is based in a former Debenhams store in a Banbury shopping centre

The electricity bill is addressed to the Wislawa Szymborska Polish Saturday School.

The school said it had never occupied the premises and only took on a short lease to give it to the Ukraine group to help them start up.

School trustee Krzysztof Wiśniewski said: "In September we discovered there is a massive bill. We are very worried."

He said Npower had refused to discuss the matter with them because Ms Kwiecinska was the named contact.

Npower, which has been approached by the BBC for an update, previously said: "In this case, the customer Wislawa Szymborska Polish School has not paid for any energy used since they became a customer of ours in March 2022 and has now built up a significant debt of over £150,000.

"In this time, we contacted them on numerous occasions, more than 10 times in the last three months alone, to help."

Cherwell District Council said it had "continued to help UK Help for Ukraine where possible with their issues with Npower by providing them with support and advice".

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