A shopping trip turned into a nightmare today for a family who say they were trapped in a car park for almost three hours.

Lisa Rossiter visited the Ashford Retail Park with daughter Shannon who needed to go to Hobbycraft.

Unfortunately, the small wooden letters she was looking for were not in stock, so they decided to head home.

But as the two women – who had Shannon's three young children with them – got back in the car, they realised something was wrong.

Housewife Lisa said: "It was around 2pm and as we tried to get out, there was just no movement, everyone was at a standstill.

"There must have been 200 to 300 cars all trying to get out at the same time, while even more cars were coming in."

She blames the traffic lights outside the retail park at the Barrey Road junction with the A2070, saying it used to flow better when they weren't there.

The 46-year-old told how after two hours, she called the police as they were so desperate.

Grandchildren Olivia, four, Tommy, two, and Alfie, 11-months, were getting increasingly frustrated.

She added: "Alfie was crying and Tommy was climbing all over the place.

"It was a nightmare, I eventually got out, Shannon was driving, and I spoke to other motorists.

"There was a lot of them taking photos as they were worried about getting £100 fines for overstaying their time."

Desperate for the loo, she finally made it back to her home eight miles away in Sackville Close, Hothfield, at around 5pm.

It's the not the first time there have been problems – last Christmas motorist also got stuck and in January a shopper told how she'd been unfairly fined £100.

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