Blackburn bakery slams traffic wardens and lack of parking for customers

Meena Bakery is one of the oldest businesses in town and attracts customers from across the borough, most notably for its range of cakes, delicacies and chapatis.

It released CCTV which showed a traffic warden booking a vehicle which was unloading building material at the shop, located off Barbara Castle Way.

They have also repeated calls for short-term parking spaces to be introduced in Tontine Street for customers on a section of the street "nobody else used".

Blackburn with Darwen Council said vehicles should park in Victoria Street to load their goods, but further videos showed traffic wardens targeting drivers on there too.

The bakery is on the corner of Victoria Street and Tontine Street - both streets have double yellow lines which ban vehicles from stopping or parking at any time unless you have a disabled blue badge on display.

Tontine Street does also have a limited number of pay and displays street parking bays, while Victoria Street has a loading bay.

Drivers who park on double yellow lines or do not buy a ticket for pay and display bays can rightfully be ticketed by wardens and fined.

It is not uncommon for town centre businesses to not have any on or off-street parking close to their premises and hasn't been for many years.

Amina Patel. from Meena Bakery, said: “Honestly, how are we expected to run a business if you can’t unload a van?

“It is shocking to see people being penalised for trying to run a business.

“Other times we have customers from across the town and they will park for minutes before moving on.

“We have a sign now to ask people to watch out for wardens.”

There were also concerns over the "logic" of booking vehicles on  Tontine Street - a dead-end - which is only used by one business.

Amina said: “It makes no sense whatsoever to have yellow lines on a dead-end street like this where the only business using the space is us.

“Nobody else if going to park here or use this part of the street. I cannot see why they would want to stop anyone from parking here for five to 10 minutes at a time.

“This business has been here for four decades and serving the whole community. Surely, we should have some parking for our customers?”

Parking spaces further up Tontine Street are normally taken up by visitors to other businesses on the stretch, including a garage.

Blackburn with Darwen Council was sent the footage and also asked to clarify why double yellow lines remain on this part of the road.

Head of Highways for Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council, Dwayne Lowe, said: "The vehicle in the video is parked in Tontine Street which has double yellows with double blips on the kerb, preventing any stopping or loading and unloading. 

“As the vehicle was unloading in this area the appropriate parking charge was issued and we advise that the businesses use the available loading bay located on Victoria Street, to avoid penalties in the future. 

“Tontine Street is a dead end and the double yellow lines were installed to ensure vehicles can safely access and turn around in the turning head.’’ 

A sign on Victoria Street states ‘loading only’ and in another CCTV image two drivers are being booked for parking on the stretch of road.

One of the drivers is "unloading his vehicle" and given "a grace period of minutes" according to witnesses.

Drivers are not permitted to park here and there were further calls for ‘short-term parking’ to be introduced along this small stretch of road to assist local businesses.

Parking is also restricted on the surrounding roads such as St James Street.

The council confirmed the bays in Victoria Street are for goods loading vehicles only and "should any vehicle other than a goods vehicle park here they risk receiving a Penalty Charge Notice".

Customers visiting Meena Bakery were told to "park in any car parking bay and adhere to the restrictions on site".