I WAS interested to read the article ‘Store slammed over car prang,’ in last week’s Barry and District News (November 1). In July 2011, my friend dented her new car on a bollard opposite Halfords on the Waterfront, which is owned by Morrisons. The bollards were painted grey and did not contrast with the surrounding environment, which contravened the Good Practice Guide.

She wrote numerous letters of complaint to insurers for Morrisons, but received the same response: “The bollards are there to be seen and the onus is on the driver to complete the manoeuvre safely around the car park”.

A letter of complaint was also sent to environmental health at the Vale of Glamorgan Council, who are the enforcing authority for safety in car parks. Their health and safety officer inspected the bollards and agreed with Morrisons, stating, “The Good Practice Guide that you provided is not a legal requirement and, therefore, the company that own the car park (Morrisons) is not legally required to abide by the contents of the document unless they wish to.”

It seemed that the responsible authority, who are there to provide a duty of care to customer safety, did nothing to help.

The last resort was a visit to Alun Cairns, MP, who listened to the facts and wrote to Morrisons. Within a few weeks, a site surveyor was sent to the car park and the bollards were removed. Nothing would have been done unless there was Parliamentary intervention.

I recommend that the drivers who had the recent prangs see Alun Cairns or face being ignored.

Tony Leat