TWO young women were left "traumatised" after being locked in the car park of Cwmbran Boating Lake half an hour before it is supposed to close.

The women had been taking dogs for a walk around the lake on Friday, February 4 and were shocked find the entrance to the car park had been padlocked at 8.30pm.

The car park is supposed to close at 9pm.

They called family member Steven Nott, who quickly arrived on the scene to get the gate open.

Mr Nott said: "I cannot begin to tell you how traumatised they both were, locked in a car park with no lighting.

"They had my dogs for company but that didn't stop them from worrying and panicking about how they were going to escape."

Mr Nott was able to remove the padlock and he freed the women at 9.05pm.

Mr Nott said: "It was pitch black, not a streetlight down there.

"It was quite quite quite scary down there and they said a bunch of teenagers came past him in the car park.

"They were worried because once you're locked in somewhere, you can't get out, you can't escape.

"I can't imagine how anyone would feel in such an isolated and worrying situation, I wouldn't want it to happen to anyone."

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Mr Nott said the women are okay now but he is frustrated about the incident.

"What does somebody do in this situation?" Mr Nott said.

"There is an emergency number available, but trying to get through to somebody is problem, especially that time of night on a Friday."

Torfaen County Borough Council said a call was put through to their emergency control room at 8.58pm and a member of staff went straigt out to help.

A Torfaen council spokeswoman said: "Going forward we will make sure that the Boating Lake car park is locked just after 9pm.

"Unfortunately, on this occasion, the gates were locked just beforehand.

"However, the staff member shutting the gates didn’t see any vehicles in the car park.

"Signage will be reviewed to make sure there is enough information on entering the car park and within the site

"We would like to apologise to the lady for causing any inconvenience caused to her whilst visiting Cwmbran Boating Lake."