Concerns over ‘lack of care’ in supermarkets to ensure safety of shoppers
THERE are concerns that supermarkets in Rhondda Cynon Taf are no longer adhering to measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
The council leader Councillor Andrew Morgan has said environmental health officers will be visiting supermarkets in the county borough after he and residents have raised their fears about precautions no longer being in place.
He said he’s increasingly concerned about the lack of Covid precautions at large supermarkets and that his experiences have not been good in line with comments made by members of the public.
Some of these concerns include a lack of social distancing, no hand sanitiser at one store entrance, staff no longer checking entry numbers, along with some supermarkets removing floor markings and oneway systems.
Environmental health officers will visit and inspect all large supermarkets across RCT and where necessary issue improvement notices or follow up with direct enforcement action if Covid precautions are lacking.
Councillor Morgan said: “Both myself and the council have received numerous comments and complaints that large supermarkets in our county borough are taking less care and attention to ensure compliance with social-distancing requirements and other Covid precautions in the interests of shoppers and supermarket staff.
“Issues raised include the removal of social-distancing arrangements and the failure to provide hand sanitiser and monitor entry numbers into stores over recent weeks.
“These comments raise concerns of complacency on the part of the large supermarket chains.
“This is why I have asked our environmental enforcement teams to increase inspection frequencies, provide advice, and only if necessary take enforcement actions to ensure appropriate arrangements continue to be set in place.
“Our supermarkets previously provided wellmanaged and safe arrangements to ensure, when other aspects of life needed to be suspended, we were able to continue shopping for essential food and groceries.
“This was an outstanding effort on the part of the supermarkets and their staff in particular, which as a council we are keen to see continue.”
A spokesman for Tesco said: “We take the safety of our colleagues and customers extremely seriously and have extensive socialdistancing and sanitisation measures in place in all our stores in Rhondda Cynon Taf in line with Welsh Government policy.
“The measures include signage and floor markers in all stores reinforcing the need for customers to observe 2m social distancing at all times, a limit on the number of customers in store, and a trolley and basket sanitisation point at all store entrances.”
A spokesman for Iceland said: “We have made no changes to our store signage and other advice to customers on Covid precautions, continue to provide hand sanitisers in all stores, and have retained floor markings to remind customers of the importance of social distancing in till areas.
“We also continue to monitor customer numbers in our stores and will place staff at the door to control customer entry if the maximum number allowed in any store is close to being reached.”
Aldi, Asda, Lidl, Morrisons and Sainsbury’s have also been contacted for comment.