A COUPLE have expressed their concern after being locked in a recycling centre for over an hour.

Shelly Mayers, 31, and her partner Adam Bedford, 37, arrived at the Greenfield Recycling Centre at 5.45pm on Thursday - and did not expect they would be leaving at about 7pm that evening.

The pair said it was evident the staff had left early and did not check to see if anyone was still on the site.

Shelly added: "We were ready to go at 5.55pm and there's a sign that says the gates shut at six so even though we were early, no-one was there.

"We were lucky really because we didn't have children to pick up because most children's day care finishes about that time.

"But what if it had been an elderly person who didn't have a mobile phone or didn't know what to do?

"My partner has severe anxiety disorder and he was starting to panic so I had to call the fire service in the end. He doesn't even like going out, he won't take me to the shops and when he does he has to stay in the car and now this has happened. It just makes everything worse. He's really upset about it."

Ms Mayers, of Mostyn, said she tried calling North Wales Police but they were unable to help and the council office was closed.

After searching for an out of hours number and being on hold for about 20 minutes, the 31-year-old said she gave up and contacted the fire service who sent highways officers to get them out.

She added: "While we were waiting we tried everything to activate the motion sensors, which if people break in the alarms are supposed to go off, but there didn't seem to be anything like that.

"Staff obviously left early and didn't check to see if anyone was on site. We were going to drive through the gates but then common sense kicked in.

"I was that panicked and nervous I was laughing and I knew it was wrong but I couldn't help it, you just don't expect that to happen.

"When someone finally did come they didn't even acknowledge us at first and the first thing they said was how did you get yourselves into this mess?"

Adam said: "Someone has got to be held accountable, they have left early and not checked to see if anyone was there. We have lost an hour of our lives."

The Leader has approached Flintshire Council for a comment.