Residents on the outskirts of Preston are embroiled in a battle with “cheeky” commuters using their cul-de-sac as a de facto car park.
Angry complaints to the neighbourhood policing team from residents in Tower Green, Fulwood, which is in the northern part of Preston, have led to PCSOs erecting signs warning drivers it’s illegal to park on the pavement.
Such is the ire of some, exasperated by the daily arrival of commuters, that they have resorted to monitoring their own street and confronting those who leave their cars in the way.
The campaign was kickstarted by Tower Green resident Lee, who claimed the issue has been rumbling on for 14 years.
Lee, taking matters into his own hands, said he places notes on cars and takes pictures of repeat offenders.
He told LancsLive: “It’s got to the point where if I’m going out I have to move one car and then put our other in its space otherwise within a matter of minutes it would be taken.
“We’ve complained to everyone; the police, the council, councillors, but the only possible solution, they say, is making the road a permit zone. If they did that then we’d have to pay £300 a year for it and why should we have to pay to park outside our own homes?”
Single or double yellow lines would also force residents to have to park elsewhere. However, Lee posited whether making Tower Green an “access only” road, meaning only residents could park there, would solve the problem too.
While most residents recognise that many of the parkers are staff at the nearby hospital, Lee believes staff that work elsewhere are using the road to park.
He said: “There was one woman who parked here and she works at a nursery. I explained to her that she was blocking the pavement but she just walked away.
“Then some time later someone from that nursery was pushing a large buggy to fit four children in it and she complained about having to go onto the road. You couldn’t make it up.”
The local publication visited Tower Green and on the day they arrived the cul-de-sac was lined with parked cars, making it challenging to drive through when another car was coming in the opposite direction.
One woman, who told the publication she had lived there for 27 years, said: “Today is a good day”.
Local resident, John, who walks his dog down the road, said that at the end of the working day, when many of those who have parked there head home, “it’s like Moses leading the slaves out of Egypt”.
He added: “There’s this mass exodus as all the cheeky buggers walk back to their cars and then go home. Evenings and weekends make it feel like a ghost town in comparison.”
