UNEXPECTED chaos was caused during last Saturday's carnival festivities, when shoppers at Sainsbury's supermarket found themselves stuck in the store's car park, unable to get out.

Roads in and out of the village were shut off at 6pm, reopening at 9pm, in preparation for the carnival procession to make its way around the village. Even though Sainsbury's petrol station closed at 6pm, in accordance with other road closures, the supermarket stayed open until 8pm for shoppers, having stopped serving alcohol at 5pm.

Angry shoppers, some with small children and babies on board, were trapped in their cars and long queues built up around the exit roundabout, which had been closed off by marshals in accordance with police regulations.

In desperation shoppers returned to the store and demanded free drinks and food, if they had to remain in the car park until 9pm, when the roads would re-open.

Taking pity on the shoppers and in order to clear the backlog of cars from the car park, the police allowed marshals to reopen the Sainsbury's roundabout exit to let cars out until 7pm.

Sainsbury's had also closed the toilets in the supermarket at 6pm, which caused severe problems to their customers, who had nowhere else to go.

Carnival committee chairman Karen Feeney told The Herald: "We had told Sainsbury's, who have now been in the village for 10 years, that the roads would be closed off at 6pm and asked them to either put up some notice about it in the store or make announcements to their customers.

"The police went into the store several times on the night talking to management about the backlog of cars and the exit problems from their car park.

"We need Sainsbury's to work with us on the night of the carnival, which they know takes place every year and they also know about the road closures well in advance.

"All the marshals dealt with the situation to the best of their ability under the instruction of the police and we hope that Sainsbury's will address the road closures and their opening times better before next years carnival."

Sainsbury's store Manager Lyn Jordan said: "I personally was not at he store last Saturday evening, since I don't live in the area and had to leave before the road closures took effect.

"The duty manager was in the store that night and the police came in and told him that the road closure at the roundabout would take effect at 7pm.

"Of course we would not deliberately lock our customers into the car park and we have been announcing store closure times all week over the tannoy, as well as the 5pm cut off time for selling alcohol on the night.

"We had to close the toilets at 6pm, because last year they were totally vandalised during carnival night, but we did open them for emergencies and did allow women and children to use them until the store shut at 8pm."

Police had dealt with potential troublemakers in the village earlier in the day and had managed to disperse the ones known to them, ensuring a trouble free event for spectators and their families on carnival night.