IN reply to the letter "Locked out" by Felicity Jones (October 18), the decision to lock the gate was not one that I took lightly.

Because of the changes to parking charges by City Of York Council, we have had a considerable number of people parking in the car park who are not customers of the store.

They are using the car park for work and to go into the city centre and have no intention of shopping in the store. This affects our sales.

Sainsbury's is trying to rectify the problem using a revised parking policy. However a short-term action was required, hence the one to lock the gate to prevent abuse.

Sainsbury's is committed to making it easier for our customers to shop and it is certainly not the case that genuine customers are unable to park. I have observed people parking and walking into town to return two hours later laden with bags and then driving out of the car park.

The first decision was to lock the gate to stop this. There are still four entrances to the store that are accessible easily by car or on foot.

The second decision was to have the car park patrolled by an attendant who will be issuing tickets for the abusers of our car park.

Ian Harrison,

Store manager,

Sainsburys plc,

Fossbank, York.

Updated: 10:18 Monday, October 25, 2004