PARENTS with a baby had to be cut free from Halesowen's multi-storey car park - leading to a warning that it is "run-down" and "not fit for purpose."

Annette Spencer contacted the news after her daughter Hannah Spencer and her partner Mark got locked in the Pool Road car park with their seven-month-old son Leo.

They were only freed when Hannah's fed-up dad used an angle-grinder to cut a padlock.

The top levels of the car park have been cordoned off by Dudley Council since last April with it set to be flattened to make way for a Halesowen College campus.

Having been swimming at Halesowen Leisure Centre and then shopping with their son in a pram, the couple used the lift hoping to get to their car on level 1A - but it took them to level three.

They called the lift again, but it did not return - leaving them having to tackle a flight of stairs to level two - where they were met by padlocked gates and left stranded.

Dudley Council has apologised to the family and said it will ensure "this partially closed car park is correctly closed off."

Annette said the couple tried calling numbers for Dudley Council but got no answer.

A lady on a lower floor saw them and went to the leisure centre, which called the council's out-of-hours team.

The 52-year-old said: "They were locked in and had no way of getting out.

"My daughter called as she was becoming a bit panicky - we drove to the car park and at this point a man from Dudley Council turned up with a handful of keys to unlock the padlock.

"None of the keys worked.

"They had been stuck there with a very unhappy baby for over an hour by then and were becoming very stressed. It was cold and windy.

"The man from the council took my husband's number and said he would call him in 10-15 mins - no call was ever received.

"My husband had enough, drove home and collected an angle grinder. He returned and cut the lock.

"A warning to users of this run-down car park - it is clearly not fit for purpose with lifts that leave visitors stranded."

Halesowen News: The top levels of the car park are cordoned off The top levels of the car park are cordoned off (Image: Google)

A spokesperson for Dudley Council said of the incident, on Sunday March 3: “We are sorry to hear about this incident, which occurred over the weekend following contractors undertaking work to the lift.

“Our engineer was on site within 19 minutes after we received the call, but on arrival did not have the correct keys to open the padlock.

“A gentleman who was on the car park told the engineer he had an angle grinder and asked if he could use that to cut off the padlock.

"The engineer agreed, but asked the man to give him 10 minutes to see if he could locate another member of staff first who might have the correct keys.

“It was agreed that if the engineer couldn’t locate someone with keys, he would go and get a replacement padlock.

“When the engineer returned with a new padlock, the lock had been cut and no-one was there.

“We have contacted our contractors to ask them to review their lift maintenance process thoroughly and to ensure this partially closed car park is correctly closed off.”