ROTARIANS are boycotting a budget supermarket after volunteers collecting donations for children’s charities were thrown out.

Staff at Aldi, in Rushbottom Lane, Benfleet, kicked out members of the Rotary Club of Hadleigh Castle, who were collecting on behalf of local children’s charities.

Members of the charitable group, who hoped to raise £1,000 through the collection, are now refusing to shop at the store.

Organiser Ken Coombs, 54, of Benfleet Road, Benfleet, said: “We were really upset with Aldi. We feel they let us down.

“Other supermarkets have been really good. It was really embarrassing being kicked out.

“None of the club will go into Aldi now.”

The club claims Aldi managers gave it verbal permission to collect outside the store over a weekend in December, so it set up a festive stand complete with music, Father Christmas and a snowman helper.

But after 30 minutes, the club claims a junior manager “evicted”

them, saying Aldi had decided it “did not support local charities.”

The club managed to raise £2,808 over the Christmas period at other supermarkets, but was dismayed by Aldi’s change of heart.

Mr Coombs added: “Other supermarkets think it adds value.”

Aldi has already been accused of going back on pledges to offer community facilities and squeezing out nearby independent shops after it began selling newspapers and kept a “public” toilet locked.

Drivers have also been hit with £40 fines after parking for longer than 90 minutes in its car park, which has spaces for the general public.

Jamie Huntman, Ukip’s parliamentary candidate for Castle Point and the party’s leader on Essex County Council, said: “The Rotary Club does a lot of work in the community in Hadleigh.

“If Aldi is going to be part of Castle Point, it needs to be part of the community.

“It seems pretty mean-spirited.”

Aldi was unable to comment by the time the Echo went to press.