Now you see them... now you don’t

FREE FOR ALL... Barriers at Sainsbury’s, in Oldham’s Union Street, have been stolenPicture: Chris Bull

VANDALS gave a damning verdict on the new Sainsbury’s parking barriers — by snatching them away in the middle of the night.

Weekend shoppers were surprised to discover they had free reign in the Oldham store’s car park over the weekend, after the barriers were removed during a night raid.

David Makin, from Dobcross, said: “I went shopping yesterday to discover that the barriers weren’t there and just made the assumption that they hadn’t been very popular, so Sainsbury’s had decided to take them down.

“It was only when my wife asked, that we were told they had been vandalised.”

Ben Hoyle, duty manager at the Union Street store, confirmed that the barriers has been stolen, saying: “I wasn’t here at the time, but we think they were taken during the night on Thursday or Friday.”

The new barriers were introduced just weeks ago to deter motorists who park on the car park and then go to work or shopping in the town centre.

Under the new scheme, shoppers will take a swipe card at the barrier, which will allow them 30 minutes’ free parking.

But drivers must now spend £5 or more in Sainsbury’s or TK Maxx and have their swipe card validated at a checkout if they are to get the full two hours’ free parking they once enjoyed.

Mr Makin added: “It must have been either boy racers, who drive around the car park at night, or disgruntled shoppers making a statement. Either way, you can’t support wanton vandalism like that.

“The big question is how on earth did they get them out of the ground? I don’t know whether they tied their car to them and drove off, or what.”

But any hope drivers might have had of enjoying free parking courtesy of Sainsbury’s have been quashed, with a new set of barriers due to be up and running this morning.

Mr Hoyle said: “We erected those barriers because our customers were struggling to park and we’ve had a lot of positive feedback since we put them up.”