A SHOP owner has hit out at the council for refusing to install bollards outside his business after it was targeted in a ram raid.

When Rajinder Saghere went to Aldermoor Convenience Stores on Monday morning to open up for the day, he was left "shocked and angry" to find the front of his shop had been damaged.

He saw the shutters had been bent at the Aldermoor Road shop and inside damage caused to products and parts of his shop.

Mr Saghere said that for a year-and-a-half he had asked Southampton City Council to place bollards outside the shop in order to deter would-be ram raiders from striking.

But his pleas were not answered and now he is counting the cost.

He told the Daily Echo: "This sort of thing happens so much in Southampton with ram raiders and we wanted something to be done so this wouldn't happen.

"It's made me so angry because this situation could have been stopped.

"The property is owned by the city council and we pay rent, so the least you expect is for our business to be protected."

Mr Saghere, who has run the shop for around 20 years, also criticised the police for failing to come to the premises after he contacted them about the incident.

Hampshire Constabulary said that all calls that come into its control room are risk assessed before a deployment decision is made.

Factors include if a crime is on-going, whether there is an immediate threat to life, and whether there are any units available who are not responding to priority calls.

It said a risk assessment of the circumstances of this incident was conducted at the time of the call on the basis of the information provided to us.

A spokesperson for the force added that officers will make further contact with the victim in this case to progress the investigation.

Police confirmed that a burglary attempt was made after a vehicle was driven into the store but entry was not gained and nothing was stolen.

It's not the first time Mr Saghere's shop has been targeted.

Earlier this year he and his son Beant Saghere were forced to arm themselves with a paintball gun and a baseball bat to fight off three masked thugs who tried to rob the shop.

A spokesperson for the city council said: "Southampton City Council receives many requests for highway and footway improvements from across the city on a continual basis and it will never be possible to implement more than a fraction of these.

"The limited funding the council has for improvements goes through a rigorous prioritisation process. We are in discussion with this trader about other ways in which the council may be able to help."

Anyone with information is asked to contact police on 101, quoting 44180424627.