PITY Ian Finch who ploughed his life-savings and redundancy money from his axed job at Rolls-Royce in Barnoldswick into a franchise coffee shop in Blackburn's town-centre King William Street -- only to be ordered to shut by councillors because his business is A3, not A1.

Ordinary folk will, of course, be perplexed by this designation which has led to Mr Finch falling foul of the planning regulations. But, in short, it says that his Puccino's coffee shop is a food outlet rather than a retail shop for which council policy has earmarked KW Street.

All of which would be fine if the same council had not bent its own rules a little over a year ago -- and somewhat bizarrely when nearly half the planning committee ducked out of voting -- and allowed a non-retail bank to occupy former retail premises in the very same block they want to boot poor Mr Finch out of.

It is not just this inconsistency that is puzzling, nor that it stands to ruin Mr Finch financially, but also that it is plainly harsh and unnecessary.

To begin with, if the council wants to reserve King William Street for shops, it should ask itself what it was doing to let what was once the town's premier shopping street be invaded by so many banks and building societies.

Besides which, there are plenty of shops in the street's vicinity -- including three large department stores and a precinct stuffed with shops just across the road from Mr Finch's business.

And on top of this, as was seen by its consent for the Halifax bank's move into new premises in King William Street last year in defiance of planning official's advice, the council has the scope to be flexible.

If it can waive the regulations for a mega-billion bank, it can do so for a little guy risking all his money to earn a crust -- and deserves to be condemned if it won't.