The Deputy Store Manager has informed me that they have had a problem with stock disappearing and children being abusive. He admitted that this was a minority of pupils. Instead of taking the more commonsense approach of using their security team and security camera to identify the troublemakers they have instead decided to ban all 1300 pupils unless they are accompanied by a responsible adult.

As the parent of three boys aged 14, 11 and 8 I am deeply concerned about the implications of this ban. We teach our children right from wrong, to respect other people and their property and also that every action has a consequence.

I have asked Sainsbury’s to reconsider and to use parental, school and police involvement to identify the troublemakers – their reply was that it was too time consuming and there was a sense of apathy. A spokeswoman from the school disputed this however and said that the school wanted to work in partnership with Sainsbury’s, as they aim to do with the whole neighbourhood, she had also offered to identify any pupils involved either in person or from CCTV footage but instead Sainsbury’s have decided to take the easy option and ban the one group of people who have less of a voice in our society

Suddenly faced with the fact that possibly I was wrong and that we may be bringing up a posse of unruly children in Oswestry I phoned around the other supermarkets to hear their policies thankfully they were all a lot more sensible!

Kwik Save have said they are finding it hard to cope with the sudden influx of children on their way to school so have banned school children between 8am and 9am.

Somerfield in Oswald Road said they found it hard to understand why Sainsbury’s had taken this step and said that any problems in store whether stemming from a child or an adult would be tackled on an individual basis and that there would certainly not be a blanket ban.

Cool Trader said they would take a “common sense approach” If a group of children started to loiter they would be asked to leave, they didn’t feel it was right to tar everyone with the same brush and said that they knew who the trouble makers were and that these few children were watched.

Iceland had a similar approach stating that occasionally groups of children loitered in store and if they did so they would be asked to leave, they didn’t feel a ban was appropriate however.

If this ban affected any other sector of society there would be an outcry, it was happening 50 years ago to various ethnic groups, 30 years ago to people with differing abilities, thankfully there are now laws in place to prevent this discrimination – but not it seems if you are aged between 11 and 16!

Although Sainsbury’s may feel that they will not miss the smaller amounts of money that the children and young people spend on their way to and from school they may like to reconsider their position if parents decide to take their business elsewhere. I would usually spend £80 - £100 in Sainsbury’s on a weekly basis. I will not be shopping in this store however whilst this extremely unjust ban is in place and I would urge other parents and like minded individuals to also boycott Sainsbury’s in Oswestry and instead use Iceland, Cool Trader or Somerfield who all appear to have a less discriminatory approach.