Ferry Road and Avenue Retail Park stores in Cardiff judged to be failing to provide adequate COVID precautions
TWO Home Bargains stores in Cardiff have been issued with improvement notices after failing to provide adequate protection for customers during the Coronavirus pandemic.
The Ferry Road store failed to take measures to control or limit the number of customers while the Avenue Retail Park store failed to undertake a risk assessment for potential of exposure, adequately provide hand sanitisations products and properly sanitise baskets and trolleys for customers.
Both stores were issued improvement orders last week and must improve the safety measures they provide by today (Feb 9) or risk fines, store closures or court proceedings.
Home Bargains have been contacted to comment, but we have yet to receive a response.
The improvement notice was supplied by an officer from Shared Regulatory Services (SRS), a government agency responsible for upholding health and trading standards.
They have been busy during the pandemic, providing 50 improvement notices so far in Cardiff for Coronavirus-related violations. A further eight businesses have already been forced to temporarily close after failing to uphold safety standards.
An SRS spokesperson said: “Our aim is to protect the health, safety and welfare of people at work, and to safeguard others, mainly members of the public, who may be exposed to risks from the way work is carried out.
“The purpose of our enforcement is to deal immediately with serious risk, promote and achieve sustained compliance with the law and ensure that duty holders who breach requirements may be held to account.”
Under government guidelines, completing a risk assessment is the first thing asked of shops while guidelines state they must also provide hand sanitiser in multiple locations in addition to washrooms.
They must also frequently clean objects that are regularly touched, which includes trolleys and baskets.
Home Bargains has permission to stay open during lockdown as it is deemed an essential business but must limit the number of products that it sells while Wales remains in the tier 4 level.
A list of all SRS improvement notices can be found here.
Members of the public can make complaints about potential COVID risks here.
