The boss of an Aberdeenshire garage destroyed in a fire last year is facing a fresh fight to keep the business alive after being denied a £25,000 coronavirus grant.
Daniel Johnston, who runs DJ Automotive Engineering, had to sell his house last year to keep the company afloat after a fire tore through its former location at the Smiddybrae Works industrial estate in Kingswells.
He managed to keep the firm in business and now operates from Westhill.
But with the impact of the lockdown on the vehicle maintenance sector and wider automotive industry, Mr Johnston has been losing out on even more cash.
He had applied for a £25,000 “retail, hospitality and leisure” grant to help, arguing that aspects of his business can be categorised as retail.
But Mr Johnston had his application turned down multiple times by Aberdeenshire Council, which administers the grants on behalf of the government.
A Holyrood spokesman said he was unable to comment on specific cases, but said if a garage conducts retail activity and can show that the “greater part of its premises” is used for that purpose, then a grant may be awarded by local authorities.
Mr Johnston is now pleading for the local authority to revise its stance.
He said: “As soon as lockdown began, work started to dry up.
“People are working from home so cars aren’t being used, and with extension of MOTs, which generated around 50% of our work, a major part of our income has just gone.
“Our staff have been furloughed for the past few months except for me, and I’ve just been doing whatever jobs I can, but I’ve still got overheads.
“These grants were announced, but I’ve just not had any money at all.
“I applied for the grant because I pay rates, and believed I should have been eligible for the £25,000 grant, but had to wait over a month to hear that I’m not eligible.
“I’ve gone back to appeal it three times, but it just keeps bouncing back.”
He added: “It’s all been pretty stressful. I’m type-one diabetic, which means I’m more at risk than the average Joe, but if I don’t keep going to work I’ll lose my business, and my employees all have their own families and mortgages too.”
A spokesman for the Scottish Government said: “Our comprehensive package of business support is now worth more than £2.3 billion and this is kept under constant review.
“The small business and retail, hospitality and leisure grants are administered by councils and they are responsible for assessing individual applications.
“We are aware that in addition to providing services, some garages conduct retail activity and where a garage can evidence that the greater part of its premises is used for retail activity then councils can award a grant on that basis.”
Aberdeenshire Council was unable to provide a comment last night.
