Shop's barrier fastened by 'twig'

The piece of wood being used to secure the car park barrier Enlarge Image

A store has blamed vandals for having to use a piece of wood to hold a car park barrier in place.

Shopper Keith Mills criticised Aldi in Ebbw Vale after returning to his car to find the barrier on his windscreen.

Last week, supermarket giant Asda was fined £225,000 for health and safety breaches after a Cardiff customer was killed by an unsecured barrier.

Aldi said the wood was used temporarily at the weekend after a padlock went missing but it had now been replaced.

Mr Mills, 32, said he parked alongside the barrier on Saturday on a trip out with his toddler son Tomos-Lloyd.

When he returned to his car, he found the barrier had been moved or had blown over the front of his Fiat Bravo car, denting the bodywork, he told the BBC.

He said: "If I had parked at a different angle, it would have hit the window.

"That could have come through the back window and that's where my baby car seat is."

The barrier fixed in place with a piece of wood at the Aldi store

Mr Mills said he remembered reading about the court case in which Asda was fined over the death of Kenneth Farr at its Cardiff store.

Mr Farr, 37, of Penarth, died in May 2002, after an unsecured barrier smashed through his car windscreen at the Asda store in Cardiff Bay.

Newport Crown Court heard the two-week inquest into his death was told the barrier, which was difficult to close, should have been locked in place with a padlock, but was not secured on the day Mr Farr died.

Mr Mills said: "If that could happened there, it could happen elsewhere. Every store should have checked its barrier."

He said after moving the barrier off his car and back in to place, he found a strip of plastic cord on the ground under the barrier and used that to tie it in place.

Photographs

"It did cross my mind to go in to Aldi and complain but my son was crying so I just re-attached the plastic cord and went home," he added.

He said he returned the following day and found the cord had been replaced by what he described as "twig".

He said: "I can't imagine kids putting a twig in there."

On Tuesday, a spokesman for Aldi said the piece of wood was used "as a precautionary measure".

He said: "It was in place temporarily since the padlock that is normally used was missing, most likely as a result of vandalism on Friday night, 25th January.

"A new padlock was swiftly purchased and put in place on the afternoon of Monday, 28th January."

The store said it would be speaking to Mr Mills to "investigate thoroughly" his complaint.