PARKING chaos at council offices in Burnley has prompted bosses to tell hundreds of workers to park elsewhere.

Shocking pictures taken by a worker show the scale of the problem at Chaddesley House, in Manchester Road, which staff say is affecting services.

Lancashire County Council has pledged to look at ways to ease the crisis.

The building is home to more than 300 of the authority’s social services staff, but provides just 19 car parking spaces.

One worker, who wished to remain anonymous, said the situation was causing ‘anguish’ among her colleagues.

She said: “These spaces are all usually full by about 8:30am and so there is a bad habit that has been going on for many years where other workers arriving later or throughout the day simply park down the middle, in non-designated spaces or up the ramp.

“Bearing in mind that within social services many of the staff are essential car users, if anyone needs to leave the building they are faced with a good half hour wait while people are rounded up and one by one all move out of the way so you can exit.

“This often makes people late for meetings and other appointments and when social workers need to urgently leave the building for emergencies this situation delays them attending in a timely matter.”

Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service said the over-crowding did not affect its ability to enter the building.

A spokesman said: “The staff muster point in the case of fire evacuation is Nicholas Street, so there's no call to use the Chaddesley House car park in their evacuation plans.”

The whistleblower said many staff could not afford to pay up to £27.50 a week to park elsewhere.

An LCC spokesperson said: "We are aware that some members of staff feel frustrated by the car parking arrangements at Chaddesley House.

“However, like other town centre-based employers, we have very limited on-site parking space available.

“Employees are not legally entitled to park at their place of work, and while we know this can cause difficulties, we expect staff to take a common sense approach.

“We are looking at ways to alleviate the situation, and in the meantime we have asked our staff to park elsewhere when all the designated spaces at Chaddesley House are full.”