Covid risk: 'Irresponsible parents' blamed over putting children in shopping trolleys

WalsallCouncil leader Councillor Mike Bird said he is angered when he sees supermarket shoppers allowing their kids to go inside the carts among the groceries instead of using the child seat.

He warned that Covid can be transmitted on hard surfaces and parents were leaving others who use the trolleys after them at risk of catching the virus.

Councillor Bird was speaking at the last Walsall Council cabinet meeting of the year on Wednesday.

He said: “I cannot believe when I go into supermarkets, you get to the door and sanitise your hands, then you get inside and find some people have got young children with filthy dirty shoes in the trolley.

“Now, don’t they get the fact Covid could be transmitted from hard surfaces?

“Nothing angers me more when I’m going around whatever supermarket you care to name and there will be a man or woman with a young child sitting in there amongst the groceries they are purchasing."

He added: “If they want to die from something transmitted from that dirty shoe or whatever, that’s OK by me. That’s their personal responsibility.

“But when that trolley goes out, most supermarkets are only sanitising the handles and the things you put your hands on.

“We need to get the message across that the parents and guardians who takes a child into the supermarket, please be responsible.

“Those trolleys have a seat where you can put that child on. Don’t put them in with the groceries. Somebody else has got to use that trolley after you’ve contaminated it.”

At the start of the pandemic, supermarkets and shops across Walsall introduced a raft of hygiene measures to ensure customers were safe.

As well as enforcing face mask rules and providing hand sanitisers, some have put a protective coating on shopping trolley and basket handles to stop the spread of bacteria.

Stores also regularly clean them, as well as providing anti-bacterial wipes and sprays for shoppers to use.