PEOPLE living near a Yate supermarket claim they fear for their lives after a string of blunders by the company.

Residents contacted the Gazette with a catalogue of complaints about the town's newly-refurbished Morrisons store.

They say they:- * have been deprived of sleep for three nights * have been forced out of their living rooms because of severe lighting from the store * fear for their safety in the case of a real emergency.

Yvonne Cox, of Home Orchard, told the Gazette last week she was at her wits end when a whining alarm kept her and her husband John awake from Monday until Thursday.

She said: "It was like Japanese torture. The whining was awful and sleep deprivation has to be one of the worst things."

But worse was to come for the Cox family and their neighbours when nobody at Morrisons was able to tell residents where the noise was coming from or when it would be turned off.

On Thursday night, after Mr Cox had demanded something be done, the noise was traced to a fuel pump alarm box near Morrisons' petrol station.

Staff, however, could not locate a key for the box and had to break into it to turn off the alarm.

Mrs Cox said: "The reason it was going off was because something was wrong. It is a petrol station next to a large housing estate but nobody has been out to find out what the problem is.

"If an alarm goes off you get the problem sorted."

She added: "My worry is if there is an actual emergency but no-one seems to know of a procedure."

Morrisons spokesman Gary Bolton told the Gazette that residents had no need to be concerned.

"An alarm close to the petrol station was sounding and we would like to apologise for any convenience caused by this," he said. "The alarm is linked to matters unconnected to the petrol tanks and residents have no reason to worry."

The bright lights surrounding the car park to the store were shining directly into residents' windows in Home Orchard and The Leaze at night. After complaints and requests from town councillors, the Bradford-based chain agreed to turn the lights off at an agreed time.

Mr Bolton claimed the company had not received any complaints about lighting. He said: "The only change in the lighting has been made at the petrol filling station, where plain light is now illuminated. However, this light switches off automatically every evening.

"During the conversion process from Safeway to Morrisons the car park lighting remained on for one evening at the request of the company carrying out improvement works to the car park and we apologise for any inconvenience caused as a result of this."

The Cox family was able to sleep soundly on Thursday night but Mrs Cox said she could foresee more problems.

"Morrisons is riding roughshod over everybody," she said. "It is worse than when Safeway was here.

"I have always been against having a petrol station in such a residential area, but if they are going to have one, staff must know what the emergency procedure is.

"I think it would bedlam in an emergency at the moment."