ILMINSTER NEWS: Tesco forecourt is not the place for children on bikes and scooters

PEDESTRIANS and cyclists are being asked to avoid using the Tesco filling station forecourt in Ilminster as a short cut.

The petrol station on the corner of Orchard Vale and Ditton Street has sometimes seen people nip across the forecourt on foot or bicycle to cut-off going the “long way round” of the pavement or road.

But there are concerns that this could lead to an accident on the busy forecourt with motorists coming and leaving the petrol station.

One motorist was taken aback on Monday (August 21, 2017) lunchtime when he was about to pull away in his car after filling up when two young lads shot in front of him on the forecourt on a bike and child’s scooter.

“They looked back at me and put their hands up to apologise, so they obviously knew what they’d done had been a bit stupid,” he told the Ilminster Press. “But it was just lucky when they did it. They come from behind across the pump islands in front of me at quite a speed just as I was turning the engine on – if they’d been a second or two later I’d have been pulling away and they might have collided with me.

“It is dangerous and it would seem common sense that a petrol station forecourt is not really the place for children to be riding through on bikes and scooters.

“If they do, it won’t be long before there is an accident and somebody is seriously hurt.”

A spokesman for the Tesco store in Ilminster said that there had been one or two occasions in the past.

The store has now politely requested that people try to refrain from using the forecourt as a short cut before it leads to an unnecessary accident.

PHOTO - TOP: The Tesco petrol station on the corner of Orchard Vale and Ditton Street.

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