Bolton Council is warning parents and families to be careful when buying toys from street traders and ensure that the toys have the correct safety warnings.
As the summer holidays approach, parents and families will be visiting the town centre to go shopping, visit the cinema or go for a meal and parents may be tempted by ‘pester power’ to buy toys from a street trader.
However, these toys may be manufactured abroad and often do not have the correct safety warnings and information. Soft toys may not be made of fire retardant materials and hard toys such as fidget spinners or light sabres may not be made to the correct safety standards and may have parts that could come loose and be dangerous for small children.
An operation last week carried out by the council’s licensing and trading standards teams seized over 50 toys from street traders in Bolton town centre including blow-up Peppa Pigs, fidget spinners, balloons, light sabers and swords. All were not labelled with the correct safety warnings and/or a CE Mark and a manufacturer or importer address.
Councillor Peel, Executive Cabinet Member for Environmental Services said “When families come into Bolton for a bit of shopping or a visit to the cinema, parents will often end up buying their children a balloon or toy from a street trader.
We’re urging parents to be cautious and check that the toy is CE marked and has a safety warning in English, which will mean it is made to EU safety standards. If there is no warning, or all the labelling is in a foreign language, we would urge them not to buy the toy.”