Waitrose billboard backfires after council rushes to 'fence it off'

A wonky Waitrose billboard has been fenced off by a London council after a stunt from the supermarket giant backfired. Concerned members of the public contacted the council over safety fears after the posh, upmarket retailer erected an askew billboard in Wandsworth.

The billboard was accompanied bytext that read: “Well, this is good – new lower prices on hundreds of your favourites.” In a post, which tagged the council, it said: “Thanks for the swift action but while our prices are falling rapidly, our billboard certainly isn’t!”

In a separate post to the official Specsavers X account, Waitrose - which is rivalled by Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda, Morrisons and more - asked: “One for you guys?” A council spokesperson said: “We were alerted to this unusual advert by a concerned member of the public and while we could see it might be deliberately set up to look that way, we thought it better not take any chances with public safety so put up some barriers to be on the safe side.

READ MORE UK faces first 30C heatwave of year - with more scorching weather to follow

“Once we’d spoken to Waitrose and established it was designed to look this way we removed the barriers straight away.” It comes days after John Lewis confirmed it had started publishing interview questions online, in a move which could benefit neurodiverse applicants.

People applying for jobs at the retail group, which also includes Waitrose, can now view a list of compliancy-based interview questions on its website. "Interviews can feel daunting, and for some - particularly those who are neurodiverse - nerves can seriously impact performance," said Lorna Bullett, the head of talent acquisition for John Lewis Partnership (JLP).

"Anyone who has ever recruited will know that there are sometimes candidates who would be capable of performing to a high standard in a role but don't always give the best performance at an interview. It made us question why we couldn't do something different with the assessment process and we decided to publish our interview questions."

Joey Nettleton Burrows, the charity's policy and public affairs manager, said it was a "brilliant" decision by the retailer. He said: "Providing questions in advance is one important adjustment that employers can do to the interview process to make employment more accessible to all, particularly autistic people who can face huge barriers in finding and staying in work.

"Autistic people have a huge amount to offer employers, and more and more businesses are recognising the benefits of having a diverse workforce full of people who offer a variety of skills and different ways of thinking. It is vital that employers are open to reasonable adjustments."