EMERGENCY services and business leaders today welcomed a police crackdown on illegal parking in some of Burnley's narrow town centre streets.

The clampdown comes as a result of problems in Curzon Street and Standish Street, which is regularly blocked by cars parking on double yellow lines.

Police are warning drivers that they must abide by parking laws or face being issued with fixed penalty tickets.

Town centre beat manager PC Dave Wiggan said: "There are double yellow lines in this particular area, both on the road and on the pavement, which means that nobody should be parking there.

"That includes disabled drivers because the road is simply not wide enough for cars to be parked on both sides.

"Unfortunately some drivers have been ignoring the double yellow lines which has caused access problems, particularly for local businesses.

"This has left us with no choice but to start issuing fixed penalty tickets to drivers.

"We don't particularly like issuing tickets, but unless drivers stop blocking roads then we will be left with no other option."

Police are also warning drivers not to park in taxi bays which have restrictions on them.

A spokesman for Burnley Fire Service said: "This is something we would welcome as we do have problems with double parking all over the town."

Ian Barton, assistant operations manager for East Lancashire ambulance, said: "It can be difficult getting access to Curzon Street and Standish Street so this clampdown by police is something we would welcome as it will help us achieve a speedy response to incidents."

Rita Walsh, secretary of Burnley and District Chamber of Trade, said: "It can be really restricting for emergency services and businesses if people do double park on those streets so hopefully what the police are doing will ease the problems."