Parents urged to make sure children's Halloween costumes are safe
Buckinghamshire and Surrey trading standards emphasis that safety must come before cost
With Halloween being just 3 days away, Buckinghamshire and Surrey Trading standards are urging people to be sensible when it comes to buying costumes.
With celebrations just days away, parents are being reminded to make sure children's costumes come from reputable sources.
Philip LeShirley, a local Trading Standards officer, says safety must always be the priority over saving money
"Cheap and counterfeit costumes may not meet fire safety standards. So it's really important to buy them from reputable retailers.
Yes, there are other products out there. You might find cheaper ones online and more, you know, you know, different styles and stuff. But you do really need to think about, well, is this going to be safe for my child?"
LeShirley also explains what he meant by a 'reputable retailer'.
"So reputable retailers, you know, if they've got a brick and mortar presence in the UK and an online site, that's a pretty good indicator"
With the cost of living crisis ongoing, LeShirley added that he sympathised with the idea of parents looking to save money where they can, but emphasised that safety can't be substituted.
"It's difficult because money is tight across the board at the moment and and a lot of the time we are led by price in our decision making processes, right. We understand that and we respect that.
It's just that when it comes to things like a outfit that your child is going to wear you really can't make any substitutes other than safety on that."
It's not just fire safety though, as LeShirley pointed out, another part of the nature of a Halloween costume can lead to 'the perfect storm'.
"If you think about things like skeleton outfits, witches outfits, pretty dark, right? So you've got this perfect storm of kids, essentially running across the road and not being visible.
So things like visibility, reflective strips and stuff, being with them and also just practical stuff like if they're wearing a mask, make sure that they got visibility."