I refer to your article Asda Changes Its Policy After Mother's Ordeal, (February 25) about Bethany Cooper, the three-year-old who managed to get out of an electronically-gated creche in the store.

I am Bethany's father and while I appreciate the article makes Asda and Dweezils look very efficient, in truth they still have not carried out some of the security recommendations.

The incident happened a full week before Christmas and the reason my wife contacted the press was because of her intense frustration that nine weeks later certain recommendations had not been acted upon.

The perspex window was only installed on February 23 after Asda were made aware of your involvement and, as you correctly state, a full incident report has not yet been made.

The original suggestion, that video cameras could be installed to cover the exit, has conveniently been omitted and the most obvious solution of all, electronic tagging, is for some reason not even considered.

So while your readers will be assured that Asda will look after their children, sadly the truth is that this could happen again for the sake of just a bit more common sense and cash.

Bethany and Joanne were lucky - they were re-united within minutes - albeit no one still knows how long Bethany had been wandering around on her own. I can tell you that it takes more than a few days to get over the anguish of the moment your child goes missing.

David Cooper,

St Giles Way,

Copmanthorpe.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.