'Market bans my babies!'

A SWANSEA market trader was asked to leave her pitch within hours for selling 'offensive' lifelike dolls.

Simone Guard set up a table selling dolls which bear a striking likeness to real babies.

But the 29-year-old claims she was asked to leave shortly after setting up her stall when a fellow market trader made a complaint to management because they found the dolls offensive.

Miss Guard said: "I set up my pitch up and within hours I was approached by two of the market managers.

"They had had a complaint from one of the stall holders and others had jumped on the band wagon and agreed they didn't like the baby dolls and they wanted me out."

Miss Guard makes the dolls herself under the name of Bluebell Baby and sells them on for anything from £150 to £500.

The dolls are handmade collectors items known as Reborn and can be customised to feature voice boxes, breathing movements and heat pads.

Miss Guard said: "The stall was perfect for me.

"I thought I could run the stall and allow people to pay on a weekly basis to make it easier to spread the cost.

"It would have been ideal because they could have come every Friday."

She admitted some people find the dolls 'a bit creepy' but said: "There is a world of difference between something you don't like and something that is offensive to you.

"Some people were fascinated by them.

"I had crowds around me.

"Whether people do or don't like them, some people were coming back three or four times."

New businesses at the market are usually vetted by existing traders but in this case a Swansea Council spokesman said the 'timing of the application was wrong' and Miss Guard's application was determined 'elsewhere'.

The local authority has now apologised to Miss Guard for the inconvenience caused.

A Swansea Council spokesperson said: "We encourage local traders to display their goods at Swansea Market as much as possible but in doing so we have to take on board the views and concerns of members of the public and existing traders.

"A number of people approached market staff on the day Miss Guard was trading at the market to raise concerns about the dolls and the matter was quickly resolved.

"We apologised to Ms Guard for any inconvenience caused and she wasn't charged for the time she spent trading at the market."

rupert.hall@swwmedia.co.uk