The Jayne’s Baby Bank Blackwood Market store, located at 13-15 The Market Place Shopping Centre, Blackwood, NP12 1AU, has now closed. This was confirmed a few weeks prior, and on 6th July 2025, Carrie-Anne and a small group helped clear out the store. Remaining stock was sold for £1 before being given away to the public. After reviewing multiple posts and transcripts regarding the property, Carrie-Anne Ridsdale has attributed the closure to two main reasons:
- A security guard repeatedly reporting her.
- Alleged “blackmail” and the attempted addition of a “window tax” by the landlord(s).
Below are transcripts of her claims:
Window Tax Claims
Date: 09/07/2025 # Source: [original]
I’ve given it back because the landlord was getting on my nerves and the last straw was trying to charge us window tax.
And now, you know, he’s down £1,000 a month and he, you know, like I said, I don’t suffer foolish men, man.
Anyway, let that be a lesson to anybody now that’s thinking of charging me window tax or anything stupid.
Date: 08/07/2025 # Source : [original]
If I get another dickhead landlord, right, I mean…
Window tax?
Really?
Right?
Fuck off
Security Guard Issues
Date: 17/06/2025 # Source : [original]
And it’s made absolutely no difference whatsoever, environmental health, turning up at our shop today in Blackwood because we can still serve, we can still serve customers, still serve customers here because they couldn’t read.
They’re just doing it out of courtesy because they’ve got to because a report have come in.
And I know for a fact that that was the security guard because yesterday he said, oh I’m going to have to ring environmental health.
And I said, why?
Because I want to end my lease in Blackwood shop and move on to the high street.
Date: 28/06/2025 # Source : [original]
So, you know, you pay in then for the security guard to ring health and safety like he did with us because we were leaving the shop, you know, and not to clean up the pigeon poo, but not to deal with that, you know, and then to try and make out that the toilet was all our responsibility, which it wasn’t because the toilet, they’ll say to you, you’ve got your own toilet, but it isn’t.
Date: 08/07/2025 # Source : [original]
When he said to the security guard to try and talk some sense in me to stay.
And then the security guard threatened me with ringing environmental health.
I was like, go and ring environmental health.
What is she going to do?
Date: 09/07/2025 # Source : [original]
I took the barrel lock out last night because I knew the security guard would try and obstruct us because I know for a fact they cleared it out after the last people.
So I made sure that nobody could fiddle with my doors and lock them today because I took the barrel lock out.
This isn’t my first rodeo.
Because I got a month and a half, a month and a year left on my contract.
Landlord Claims
Date: 07/07/2025 # Source : [original]
So good luck to anybody who takes this shop on because we then had a landlord change.
And I voiced my concerns to the landlord at the time, you know, and to Princeton’s.
They just sold us a load of false promises to get us in here, and they shouldn’t have.
But that was all verbal, so that was my fault.
And then that’s when they started trying to blackmail us to stay.
And then I was having all sorts of messages of all sorts of people that were related to him.
Threatening to put us all over Facebook.
What put us all over Facebook?
Saying that we were leaving them in the lurch and they had, you know, they’d remortgage their house to buy the shop.
Well, who the hell remortgages a house to buy a shop in 2025?
And then he said he would drop the rent from £1,200 a month to £1,000 a month.
Then he added VAT on and we were like, well, that’s £1,200.
Date: 25/06/2025 # Source : [original]
We have not been kicked out of Blackwood Shop.
I’m quite sure we would have been kicked out by now.
I’ve got less than 18 months left on my tenancy and I put my email up already to prove it.
So, again,
wanted to end my lease because he bought a property, I don’t know what lease it was.
There’s a lease to do with the marketplace, and there’s a lease to do with the middle.
It’s a bit complicated in that.
But it’s something to do with an 100 year lease or tenancy or something, I don’t know.
They did tell us when we moved in, but it’s nothing to do with me.
That’s a landlord thing.
So if our landlord wanted us to leave, they would have to pay us compensation for us to leave.
So obviously I let them know this in November that we were looking for another shop.
They dropped the rent, but then they added VAT on, which meant it was the same rent.
So I appreciate the fact that they tried, but it isn’t enough.
And in the meantime, my landlord has been trying to get me to stay.
And put in on the guilt trip.
Which has gone on my nerves a bit.
Date: 19/06/2025 # Source : [original]
If you’re a landlord and you’ve got Princeton’s in you need to get rid of them right now.
They wanted £800 for a tiny little shop with no toilet.
So, if you’re sensible like some of our other landlords you would I mean, don’t bother with Blackwood Shop because I won’t be staying there after my lease anyway because of the messages I’ve received off it.
I’ve got my own bills to pay.
My own bills and I’m trying to help mothers pay their bills.
Date: 13/06/2025 # Source : [original]
I’ve got less than 18 months left on a lease in Blackwood.
I’m not happy that the landlord wouldn’t fix electric.
Luckily National Grid has done it for us.
So that’s saved them a lot of money.
Then they tried to push a bill onto us and we’re like we’re not paying it.
Then they wanted to pay us an additional insurance.
So I was like no it’s not in my contract.
In my lease.
Then I’ve had a bit of… you can’t leave me.
I’ve got a mortgage to pay.
And I’m like… I’ve got to do what’s right for us.
And they left us without power.
It created problems for me.
We did have power, but only a third of it was working.
Because it was on a separate system, you know.
A separate electrical system.
And then the bill came in and it was like 800 odd pound.
And we were like, oh, I can’t do this.
And then National Grid said, no, they’re 8.99 each on Amazon.
And showed us.
A lot for Labour that would have been, wouldn’t it?
Date: 05/06/2025 # Source : [original]
But I have got some issues with this shop.
We have to wait for the electric.
Luckily National Grid fixed the electric for us, right?
For free.
But we have to pay £200 odd to find out what was wrong with the electric.
The landlord wouldn’t pay for it.
And then they wanted £800 to fix it.
So that was a bit questionable because National Grid just went and fixed it.
So I don’t think it was £800 worth.
Date: 17/06/2025 # Source : [original]
So, oh and we’ve had some more news today.
The landlord for Blackwood Shop owns other shops in Blackwood and his other tenant is leaving.
Maybe it’s the other ladies gut instinct as well.
So she’s actually selling up the business and going.
And I believe it’s a hair and beauty business which is probably one of the most sustainable at the moment.
But out of all the businesses it’s probably one of the most sustainable because people still want to have their hair done and their nails done, don’t they?
That will teach people for being horrible to us, won’t it?
Trying to blackmail us and make us feel bad and generally being awful, turning up at our place of work, trying to interfere when we’re trying to do stuff.
We also published a Food Safety and Council Report for Pontypool and the Blackwood shop in a previous post, which can be read here. Miss Ridsdale later live-streamed a video responding to our FOIA release, in which her primary focus was the toilet. This is rather ironic, given that one of her current complaints about the Pontypool store concerns the toilet.
There were some other things that happened when I signed the contract.
Like they told me that was my personal toilet.
Which I was happy with.
We do our best, you know.
Any problems with any of our toilets.
Just let us know.
But it wasn’t.
It was for the whole block.
So I’m not cleaning the toilet.
In Closing
One of the reasons we document as much as possible is precisely for situations like this. An example of her hypocrisy can be seen on 10/06/2025, when she stated:
For example if we had a shite fountain coming out of the toilet.
Yeah?
And the first thing I would do is rod it anyway.
Before I’d even bothered ringing a landlord.
I’d rod it because we got rods.
We’d be there, done that.
However, on 03/04/2025, Miss Ridsdale also stated in a video:
To comment on a block toilet that I had in 2023.
Shut that baby bank down!
They had a block toilet in 2023.
Are you unwell?
Why on earth would you want to reference a block toilet that I had in one of my shops in 2023?
And just for reference, I actually contacted the head of public protection because the landlord was refusing to unblock the toilet and it was a serious issue and unfortunately because of the way that the property is built, it is very antiquated and the only way that anybody could get any access to the toilet systems and pipes to rod them was to use other parts of the premises, which then we didn’t have access to.
The toilet issue was surely a point of contention for the shop at the time, particularly given the concerns raised in the health and safety inspection report. The local council noted it, you highlighted it, and it is now being used as part of the ongoing dispute with the landlord. If it were us, we would have pushed hard to get this matter resolved, especially on legal grounds. Under the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992, volunteers are considered staff for health and safety purposes, and there is a legal requirement to provide them with adequate toilet and handwashing facilities.
Regarding the “Blackwood Superstore”, in our experience, the truth likely lies somewhere in the middle. However, one thing is certain: for a woman who drives a disability vehicle and is unable to do much due to cancer and other health issues, she appears to have no difficulty lifting heavy goods or rushing about the market when she believes no one is watching. A concerned member of the public sent us the following:
Before we bid you farewell, we wanted to let you know that our transcript search engine is now live, allowing the public to search for any references to Blackwood.
Sherlock.
I’d love to be a fly on the wall when she’s reading this. I wonder how she would react seeing her own lies being exposed online. I bet she’s furious and the fact she had absolutely no idea who Sherlock is.
Narcissistic pathological liar. One thing they all have in common is an very poor memory 😊 keep up the good work Sherlock
As I have mentioned before, I am not connected to any charity, company, CIC, or similar organization. I believe this allows me to maintain a fair perspective on the situation. Furthermore, even if she knew my name, she would have no idea who I am, as I have no ties to anything locally.
S